Second Chances
by emcey squared
Summary: AU: Given memories of the future, Seifer has the chance to alter his life before any of his mistakes are made. Despite the temptation to choose the same side as before, Seifer makes SeeD and changes everyone's futures. Seifer/Squall Co-writer:KitKatt0430
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer - All things Final Fantasy do not belong to KitKatt0430 or Emcey_Squared. We lament this fact, though we rejoice over the lack of lawsuits this entails.

A/N - Welcome to the 'director's cut' version of the prologue and chapter one. What do we mean by director's cut, you wonder? Well, we went through and rewrote the entire chapter, adding more description, fixed some weird phrasing, did a better editing job, and added a few things here and there that helped to fill a few accidental holes created by the natural evolution of the story. We hope that new readers and re-readers alike will enjoy the revamped chapters as we upload them. Keep your eyes peeled; we intend to bring the entire story up to the standards set by this updated chapter.

10/29/12 - Re-edit.

Pairings - Seifer/Squall, Selphie/Irvine, pre-Quistis/Female!OC

_**Second Chances**_

_Prologue_

He was calm – unnaturally calm, really, given the circumstances – as he was dragged into the sterile room and chained to a chair. There was a witness (General Caraway, who looked far too gleeful; but then he'd hated Seifer since learning that he'd dated, and dumped, Rinoa the year before), a court official, and a doctor waiting for him. They hadn't wanted to waste time and Seifer was just... tired.

He was ready for it to end.

The court official read out the sentence: death by lethal injection. The doctor wasted no time injecting Seifer with the poison. Caraway smiled eerily and told him how he'd fall asleep, never to wake again.

"It's a more peaceful death than you deserve," Caraway told him.

Seifer just shrugged and leaned back, waiting for the end. Borrowing Leonhart's favorite phrase, he muttered "whatever" as laconically as possible. It hadn't really sunk in yet, that he'd be dead in a matter of minutes. Except he could feel his thoughts growing sluggish and his sight wavered a little.

A chill ran through Seifer's body that might have been from the drugs or, just as likely, the sudden realization that this was it. He was eighteen and would never live to see nineteen. He'd never be able to legally purchase alcohol (not that he hadn't gotten away with getting a few illegal drinks over the past year or so). He'd never have sex... though he'd gotten pretty close. He'd never be forgiven by his posse for running off to Galbadia like a moron.

He'd never be forgiven by anyone, ever.

Joining the Sorceress had felt like the right thing to do. It still felt like the right thing to do. Ultimecia had been awe inspiring and amazing; he'd done his damnedest to be good enough for her, though he felt as though he'd failed at every turn. But now she was gone and everyone saw him as the evilest villain since the Sorceress Adel.

And Leonhart...

Seifer shoved that thought away. He didn't want Squall Leonhart's hatred to be haunting him into death. Bad enough that he was about to die young. There was no point in making things worse.

The door slammed open.

"STOP!"

Seifer blinked; he hadn't even realized that his eyes had closed, but Fujin's shout jerked him back from the edge of unconsciousness. Elation coursed through him, followed closely by terror.

His posse had come for him... too late.

"We've already carried out the execution," Caraway told Fujin and Raijin, who stood in the door, weapons in hand. "Almasy will be dead in a matter of minutes."

"No, no!" Raijin shook his head. "There's gotta be an antidote! There's always an antidote, ya know?" He took a few steps over to the doctor and grabbed his arm. "What do we have to do to save him?"

"Seifer..." Fujin crouched in front of him, fear clouding her eye with tears. "We were supposed to save you..."

"I'm sorry, Fuu... Rai..." Seifer whispered hoarsely, his strength giving away. It was too late. He'd fucked up his life for the last time.

Distantly, Seifer felt Fujin's hands on his arms, shaking him in an attempt to keep him awake even as he spiraled into darkness. The protests of his friends fell on ears that ceased to hear them. Left in the cold and the dark, everything fell away, even the feeling of the chains on his wrists and the chair beneath him. He was nowhere.

"So this is death..." Seifer looked around uncertainly; the place was barren, yet somehow familiar. It didn't feel like a place he'd ever been before, but a bit like somewhere he was supposed to have gone and missed somehow.

"Would you like a second chance?" the voice seemed to come from nowhere and everywhere at once. "I could grant you the option to choose a different side in the war that damned you."

Looking around, Seifer tried to pinpoint the source of the voice, but it was too dark. If there was anyone there, they didn't even have to be well hidden to avoid his sight. "I don't disagree with the choices I've made. I don't feel guilty," Seifer growled at the disembodied voice.

"You don't? Then why do you crave the forgiveness of those you hurt the most?" The voice laughed, continuing to speak before Seifer could verbalize a cutting retort. "I never said that you had to repent for what you've done. I simply asked if you wanted a second chance. Should you take the path you disdained before - stand at Leonhart's side in opposition to the Sorceress Ultimecia - you need not die so pointlessly."

The temperature was dropping and Seifer wrapped his arms around his chest in an effort to conserve heat. Could he really do it? Could he fight at Leonhart's side and take orders from the reticent, anti-social brunet? Could he bring himself to fight against Ultimecia...

"You haven't the time to dawdle over this decision, Seifer Almasy. I cannot maintain a connection to both you and this place for much longer."

"Fine." Seifer wanted to live more than he wanted to serve Ultimecia. He could handle being under Leonhart's command too, if it meant not dying in that sterile room with poison running through his veins. Dying in battle was one thing, but to be put down like a rabid dog... there was no dignity in such a death. "How does this work?"

"Have you not noticed? You're eyes are closed, Almasy. Open them to life as it was three weeks before your last SeeD exam. Do not share your future knowledge with others; there are consequences you would not like for sharing this knowledge without my permission. Make of this second chance what you will; this is the only time you'll get such an offer."

By then, Seifer felt overwhelmed by the freezing chill that surrounded him and he didn't understand what she meant about his eyes being closed. Surely his eyes were open; the place he was in might be dark, but there were still things he could see... like the silhouette of a woman standing not too far from him...

There was something tangling around his body. Thrashing against the alien sensation of having something coiled around him, Seifer's green eyes snapped open. He sat up sharply, his body shaking and teeth chattering from the cold.

Light was streaming in through a window into a room that was undeniably his dorm at Garden. Seifer's head began to throb painfully and the room tilted around him. He collapsed back against his pillow and brought closer the bedsheets that he'd shoved away in his panic. There was a knocking at his door, which Seifer didn't bother to respond to; he was far too busy whimpering at the pain the sound inspired.

A few moments later the door opened despite his lack of response and Fujin breezed in. Taking in the sight of her roommate's condition, her hand went straight to his forehead. There was something soothing about the action and Seifer relaxed against her touch.

"BURNING!" Fujin gasped in surprise.

"F-freezing," Seifer countered shakily.

Yanking her hand back, Fujin turned sharply for the door. "TREATMENT!" she declared as she hurried from the room, presumably to fetch Dr. Kadowaki.

Despite the cold and the pain, Seifer drifted off to sleep.

* * *

Seifer woke to the familiar, off-white walls of the Garden infirmary, beige curtains partially obscuring the view of students rushing around the quad. For a moment, Seifer thought that maybe Fuu and Rai had done it; they'd gotten him the antidote and convinced Leonhart to let him recuperate at Garden before tossing him back out on his ass. Then his head began to pound and Seifer's thoughts went in the other direction.

Maybe it was all some sort of nightmare brought on by his illness. Maybe Ultimecia, as well as the 'future' he'd lived through, had never existed.

The room felt too hot, so Seifer struggled to sit up and push away the heavy quilt that had been draped over his bed. He hated the weak feeling that descended over him, making every movement twice as hard as it ought to have been. His actions caught the attention of Dr. Kadowaki, however, and the good-natured doctor hurried into the room with a smile on her face.

"Good afternoon, Seifer. How are you feeling?" She grabbed the clipboard off the end of his bed as she spoke.

"Like I was run over by a tank," Seifer rasped. "It's really hot in here, too."

"That's your fever, not the room," Kadowaki told him. "It seems you've caught the latest flu bug that's been going around. Your roommate was very worried about your well-being; I'll send her word that you've woken." Dr. Kadowaki made a few notations on her chart. "Would you like something to eat?"

Though not exactly hungry, Seifer nodded in acquiescence. "How long have I been sleeping?"

"All morning. I thought you'd sleep away the afternoon, too. It's almost four."

"Oh..." dizzily, Seifer leaned back against the pillows.

"I'll be right back with some soup, crackers, and water after I send one of my runners to Fujin. I'll also have some medicine for you, which should help bring down your fever some." Turning away, Dr. Kadowaki placed the clipboard back where she'd found it and walked out the door, which shut behind her with a soft 'snick.'

"Was it all a dream?" Seifer wondered aloud. Looking out the window, Seifer watched his fellow cadets for a few moments as he tried to judge whether what he remembered was really just an elaborate fever-dream or a reality that no longer existed. It sounded impossible, after all. People didn't die just to wake up months in the past, and ill no less.

Yet there was a part of Seifer that knew the memories were real. He remembered how satisfied he'd been with his choices... how proud he'd been to serve the Sorceress... how shock had masked his fear upon death.

_I don't exactly want to, but I need to change a few things before everything spirals into death again,_ he decided. _My second chance... time to do things the 'right' way._

The door opened again and Dr. Kadowaki walked back in with a tray of food in her hands. Shrugging off thoughts of what the future could hold, Seifer decided to concentrate solely on getting better for now. The rest could come later.

_Chapter One_

This was the day.

In Seifer's mind, he could clearly picture the way things had happened the other time around. He'd gotten up early, like he had today, and hurried out of his room, another thing he'd done the same. Both times, he'd run into Squall the moment he'd stepped into the hall. Before, he'd insulted Squall and challenged the brunet to a sparring match that spiraled out of control, landing them with matching scars. This time he just demanded Squall stay out of his way before sweeping off.

Hours had passed since then and class had come and gone. The final exam would be coming up soon and here Seifer was, sitting in his dorm with Raijin and Fujin. All of them were staring at Seifer's cadet uniform, which was on a hanger that had been hooked to the back of Seifer's desk chair.

"I really, really want to make SeeD," Seifer commented. "So I ought to take the test seriously... wear the uniform, follow my orders, and get my act together this time, right?"

"AFFIRMATIVE," Fujin agreed, nudging Raijin with her elbow to get him to respond.

"Ya know it," Raijin agreed absently. Rubbing his ribs where Fujin got him, Raijin scowled at the silver-haired girl.

"But I don't want to wear the uniform," Seifer grumbled, well aware he sounded whiny.

"Then don..." Raijin was cut off by another jab from Fujin's elbow.

"PRESENT!" Fujin held out a pair of black leather gloves with blood-red sword-crosses on them. "EARN TODAY."

"I'll earn them by making SeeD, Fuu," Seifer grinned at her and grabbed the gloves and uniform before dashing into his bedroom to change.

"I don't get it, ya know? Why'd the gloves change his mind?" The doors shut out whatever answer Raijin received from Fujin.

Admiring the gloves, Seifer exchanged them for the pair he usually wore and felt a bit relieved at the somewhat worn-in feeling they had. Stiff gloves would interfere with his ability to fight, but this new pair wouldn't. They were perfect.

And then it hit him; he'd never received these gloves in the other future he remembered.

Stripping out of his clothes, Seifer pondered that bit of information. Had Fujin decided not to give the gloves in the other timeline because he was upset over not making SeeD? Then again, he'd been in a habit of taking Fuu and Rai for granted during that go-round. Treating them the way he had was his only real regret from that life. Maybe the gloves were completely new to this timeline entirely and were Fuu's way of subtly thanking him for the change.

Or maybe they were just gloves and he was reading into them too much. The other future could have easily been a fever-dream, after all.

Putting on the uniform, which was a little stiff since he'd never worn it before, Seifer decided it didn't matter. Dream or reality, what was important was the affect it was having on him. He had a chance to make life better for himself; there was no point in wasting it by thinking himself in circles.

Finally reaching the jacket, Seifer tugged on it a few times and wished it was longer. He preferred trench coats to jackets that ended at the waist; the uniform felt incomplete.

"Oh well. There's no helping it, I guess," Seifer muttered, heading for the door. Walking out into the living area of the dorm, Seifer gestured widely. "So... what do you two think?"

"REGAL!" Fujin declared, her red eye glowing with approval and pride.

Raijin catcalled with a smirk. "The girls are really gonna chase you now, ya know?"

"Tch..." Seifer crossed his arms. "That's only if they don't freak out and decide the apocalypse is coming," Seifer grumbled, though the smile on his face belied his words. Honestly... who could ask for better friends than these? "Let's get going, guys. Our public awaits."

* * *

"Lively?" Squall's voice was incredulous as Seifer strolled into hearing range. The brunet glowered at Quistis, who simply smiled serenely at the younger teen. "He's just loud. Can't I switch team members?"

"Teams were formed with both balanced skills and specific tasks in mind, Squall," Trepe admonished. "There can't be any reassignments." Raising her voice, she flagged down Zell Dincht, who did a few flashy flips to reach the Instructor. "You and Squall are on the same team. Your leader, who should be here by now, is Seifer Almasy."

"I was just waiting to hear your dulcet tones call my name," Seifer drawled, walking up to the group with Fuu and Rai on either side of him. There were identical looks of surprise on Quistis, Squall, and Zell's faces at the sight of Seifer in uniform. He smirked, glad to have floored them with his uncharacteristic 'bow' to Garden authority.

"I didn't think you knew what that uniform was for, Seifer," Quistis retorted once she'd recovered from the shock.

"It's surprisingly useful for shutting people up," Seifer observed. "I've never heard such silence in Garden's halls before; you'd think Armageddon was at hand." Zell snorted in amusement at Seifer's comment and then quailed under the force of Seifer's glare. "Careful Chicken-wuss. Annoy me enough and I'm sure the jacket could double as a gag."

"Hey...!" Zell batted the air with his fists in frustration.

"Down boy," Raijin teased. "Squawk at someone else, ya know?"

"LUCK!" Fujin walked into the middle of the group and gave Seifer, Squall, and Zell pointed looks. Once she received three affirmative nods, she turned sharply and strolled off, grabbing Raijin's arm as she passed him and dragging him away with her.

"That was friendly of her," Squall commented.

Seifer shrugged. "She's been worried about something all day." Glancing back at the silver haired woman as she disappeared around the curve of the hall, Seifer wondered what could have Fujin so on edge. But he shoved his curiosity aside. They were as close to being siblings as was possible without sharing blood-ties; if it were truly important, then Fuu would tell him. "Let's get this show on the road, shall we?"

'We have to wait for the Headmaster," Quistis told him. "He'll be giving a speech before sending everyone off." She paused a moment, an odd expression on her face. She seemed to be weighing the consequences of something. "You've been acting differently the past few weeks, Seifer."

"Have I really? I hadn't noticed." _Or, rather, I'd hoped no one beyond my posse had noticed._

"You have," Quistis confirmed, doggedly persevering in the attempt to start a conversation about his changed behavior. "It's been appreciated."

"I'd say 'whatever,' but then I'd be poaching Leonhart's catch phrase," Seifer grumbled, hoping that Trepe would leave things at that. Predictably, Squall pinned Seifer with a powerful glare, but Seifer was adept at ignoring the blue-eyed stare after years of inoculation against the brunet's moods.

To Seifer's relief, however, Quistis laughed and refrained from pressing the subject further.

* * *

"There aren't any flies in the van, Chicken-wuss," Seifer drawled, hoping to get Zell to stop shadow-boxing. The tattooed blonde's nervous energy was grating on Seifer's nerves.

"What did you call me?"

"The same thing I always do," was Seifer's scathing reply. "If you're too busy looking like an idiot to pay attention to your surroundings, I have no intention of wasting my time catering to you by repeating myself." Seifer rolled his eyes when Zell took a menacing step forward.

Ever the peacemaker, Quistis opened her mouth to say something that was likely cliched and condescending. Seifer quickly spoke to stop her from saying anything. "You always counsel people to ignore me, Dincht, but they'll never listen to you if you can't follow your own advice." Three startled expressions turned to Seifer, who fidgeted under the pressure of the combined gazes. "Wow, you'd think I'd just told you I could turn lead in gold or that the sky is falling. This is why I never try to be nice around you people."

Zell snorted derisively. 'You never try to be nice simply because you don't know how."

"No. I just don't bother to censor myself the way other people do. If I were incapable of being nice, not even Fujin and Raijin would spend time with me." He rolled his eyes again as the trio continued to give him bewildered looks. "This is ridiculous," he muttered, leaning back in his seat.

A few moments later, the van went over a particularly large bump in the road, knocking Zell to the ground in a heap. Smirking, Seifer tilted his head to stare at the ceiling, eager to arrive at Balamb's docks.

Not too much later they were stepping out of the van into the fading light of the sunset over Balamb Harbor. Stretching his arms, Seifer glanced around and noticed that a full moon was rising into the sky. "Looks like a sniper moon," Seifer observed. "I hope the Galbadians aren't smart enough to take advantage of it."

"Sniper moon?" Squall echoed curiously.

"The light of the moon shines brightest when it's full," Xu commented, walking up to them. "Snipers can use it to their advantage, hence the nickname. Hello, Seifer, here for a third snafu?"

"Aww, Xu, I can just feel the love. You know you'd be devastated if I'd given up," Seifer drawled mockingly. Peering around her, he spotted the Garden Coral Submarines in the bay. "Sweet! C-subs."

"He's like a kid in a candy store," Xu teased, sounding a bit thrown by his friendly response. She'd clearly been hoping to rile him up a bit. "Point him at the munitions and watch the fireworks," she mused with a smirk.

Seifer didn't bother to respond. Shrugging, Seifer turned to Squall, shooting the brunet a grin before leading the way to the C-subs. This was what he lived for; fighting against the enemy with life and death decided solely by who was stronger both physically and mentally. Half the battle, after all, was psychological..

Once inside the sub, Seifer took a seat on one of the briefing room's two benches. Squall took the empty seat beside him, forcing Quistis and Zell to sit across from them. Seifer had no doubt this was purposeful on Squall's part; Quistis' crush on Squall was obvious enough that the lithe gunblade specialist had no choice but to avoid the woman as best he could. Verbal confrontations weren't Squall's strong point; he'd rather avoid them in favor of physical fights, not that fighting Quistis would make the blonde beauty back off.

In a way, he was almost looking forward to the fated romance of between Squall and Rinoa, if only to see Quistis' finally have to acknowledge that Squall had less than zero interest in her. It wouldn't make up for a year of putting up with Quistis at her most patronizing, but it would be a great start.

Once everyone was seated, Xu took her place at the head of the briefing table and began to natter on about their mission to secure the city square. Located at the heart of Dollet, the square would be overrun by Galbadian soldiers as SeeD and Cadet teams flushed them out. On one hand, Seifer could understand the necessity of having both of Garden's gunblade specialists on that team. The two of them were the strongest fighters Garden had, regardless of their status as cadets. Zell was one of the facility's best support fighters, so he rounded off their team well skill-wise. But... Seifer didn't really see the point of the mission they were being given. The Galbadian soldiers who were retreating could just as easily be spared. This sounded more like someone was using Garden to send a message.

Maybe someone _was_ using Garden to send a message; both Kramer and NORG knew about the Sorceress. It wasn't too much of a stretch to think that one of them had set up the Dollet mission in such a manner that it would let the Sorceress know they were on to her by depriving her of so many soldiers.

"Sounds pretty important," Zell muttered, dragging Seifer out of his thoughts.

No matter what the reasoning behind their mission was, it was still going to be boring as hell. The majority of their time would be spent sitting around a broken fountain watching a dog bark. Seifer was not looking forward to that.

Shifting his attention to the weapons rack, Seifer considered the array of secondary weapons available for use on the mission. Though the majority of the upcoming battle would be waged with their primary weapons, it was always a good idea to have backups in order to cover contingencies. Selecting a 9mm semi-automatic, Seifer reached for it, snagging the weapon without ever leaving his seat. He also claimed an extra magazine; both objects slid into place on his uniform belt. Normally that's all he'd take, being well stocked in knives already, but he recalled how worried Fujin was.

Between his recollections of the other timeline and Fujin's worries, Seifer felt justified in picking out one of Garden's experimental weapons – the xep-2 – and placing it on the table. It resembled a small rifle and had a strap meant to hook over someone's head and shoulder for easy transportation. "Do we get to play with these, too?" he asked Xu.

"The xep-2 has been cleared for the mission, but cadets are to be cautioned against using it because of..."

"The accidents that occurred during production," Seifer finished for Xu. "Gotta love the Balamb rumor mill, huh?" Ignoring the SeeD officer's irritated expression, Seifer sat forward in his seat and hooked the xep-2's strap across his right shoulder and over his head.

"What's our ETA?" Squall asked as he, too, selected a few extra weapons from the rack.

"Twenty minutes," Quistis responded as she checked over her own weapons.

Returning to his seat, Squall caught Seifer's attention and asked, "what makes the xep-2 so special?"

Startled by the attention so much that his heart hammered in his chest a moment, Seifer barely managed to pull off a typical, nonchalant response. "The xep-2 uses a combination attack. The main part is the projectile it fires, which can punch through even Galbadian armor, but the secondary part is the lightning spell that has been fused to each bullet. Once the bullet hits the target, it lets off a burst of electricity."

"So they can disable the part of the armor that lets them cast spells?" Squall clarified.

"Yeah." Seifer remembered how surprised he'd been when Balamb hadn't made use of the xep-2s during the Garden battle. At the time, he'd assumed that there had been further problems that made the weapons a liability, but maybe Squall just hadn't known or remembered the weapon's useful qualities. Either way, playing around with the new toy sounded like fun.

* * *

"Looks like A-squad has already finished securing the beach," Seifer commented quietly as he led the way up the stairs to the city. They'd had to cleave their way through a few Galbadian soldiers after leaving the C-subs, but hadn't had too much trouble. This time he was even sticking close to his team instead of constantly racing ahead to take point.

"How far is Dollet's square from here?" Squall asked. The brunet was warily watching the surrounding area for enemies; they were moving from the beach stairs onto the main street, which was eerily quiet and littered with debris from earlier battles between the Galbadian soldiers and the Dollet National Guard.

C-squad was already there, though, checking buildings and systematically securing the area.

"All major streets lead to the square, though this particular street is the Main Street," Seifer told Squall. "It should take about five minutes or so from here." Shifting his gunblade in his hands, he asked, "have either of you been here before?"

"Never," Squall muttered shortly.

"I have." Zell grinned fondly at the memories. "I've visited a few times with my ma, mostly before she sent be to Garden." The smile on his face faded as his hands clenched into fists. The shorter blonde punched the air a few times in agitation, the light from broken streetlamps reflecting off his gauntlets and flashing like sparks of electricity. "It's... weird to see the city looking so torn up after having seen it on better days."

"That store there," Seifer gestured to a broken down shop with glass littering the pavement by the windows, "was my favorite. Part weapons customization and part curiosity shop... and now it's likely been looted."

"Is there a point to this?" Squall asked, his voice tense.

Seifer shrugged. "Not really," he responded and then went silent.

Two Galbadian soldiers leaped out of a small alleyway as the trio passed by. Both blonds easily knocked the soldiers sown and out before Squall had a chance to react. Stepping over the corpses, Seifer gave the rooftops a brief glance. He didn't remember the Galbadian's using snipers before, but it was better not to take any chances. It was the perfect night for snipers and there was certainly no honor or glory to be found in getting shot down without having a chance to fight back.

Seifer knew that lesson particularly well.

"I liked that restaurant a lot," Zell said shakily, gesturing a to a burnt out building beside the alley. He seemed to get what the conversation had really been about; it was easier to stay calm when your mind processed things more trivial than the death and destruction surrounding them.

The restaurant Zell was pointing at had been well known for its hamburgers, hot dogs, and other popular Balamb cuisine. Seifer smirked; "you would like food from home best, wouldn't you Chicken-wuss?"

"I'm not a chicken!" Zell growled.

"But your hair resembles poultry," Seifer protested. "I call it like I see it."

"Oh, _really_?"

"Could both of you shut up?" Squall's irritated voice quieted the blonds once more.

By now they were approaching the city square. There was a trio of Galbadian soldiers standing beside the water feature that had once sported the statue of a beautiful maiden surrounded by swirling 'water' rising from below. Now the statue was horribly disfigured and the sides of the fountain were cracked. Though the pump had been deactivated, water had already soaked the ground, making the footing slick. In the encompassing darkness of the surrounding streets and alleyways, Seifer couldn't see any other soldiers in the area. Though, he recalled that there would be at least five more who would come running up soon enough.

Recklessly charging forward, Seifer took the first soldier by surprise. The second and third turn to him. As they prepared to shoot, Squall and Zell darted out and efficiently dispatched them. Another two soldiers raced out of the shadows, guns blazing, but the three cadets had anticipated trouble. They simultaneously cast Protect. The bullets bounced off the trio harmlessly as they counterattacked.

"SeeD!" yelled someone off in the distance.

"Close enough," Seifer decided with a grin. "Just think; by this time tomorrow, that idiot will be right."

"Think we'll all make it?" Zell asked, staring in the direction they'd heard the voice from.

"Well, if I don't get in, this uniform is gonna get burned somewhere public... like the quad," Seifer narrowed his eyes at the darkness, sensing more than seeing the movement of the Galbadians. "Three incoming," he told his teammates. Lifting his gunblade into one of his favored stances, Seifer jumped forward and jammed the blade into the weakest spot in the Gabladian's armor: the joining between the helmet and the neck piece. Yanking the blade out, he whirled around and slammed the flat of the blade into the back of a second soldier's helmet. The soldier was stunned long enough for Zell to deliver a junction enhanced right-hook that snapped the man's neck. Squall had already dealt with the third soldier by punching through the armor with his gunblade.

There was a short silence and then Seifer asked teasingly, "think the square is secure yet, Chicken-wuss?"

"Bastard."

"I wouldn't know; I'm an orphan," Seifer shot back with a smirk. Ignoring Zell's surprised and somewhat contrite spluttering, Seifer's attention zeroed in on an underfed dog that was wandering the square. It should have been in somebody's kitchen begging for scraps and petting, but instead it was left out to fend for itself. Seifer felt a little sorry for it, but not that sorry. "The mutt had better not give away our position."

Squall walked over to the animal and crouched down in front of it, his arm outstretched non-threateningly. The dog sniffed the gloved appendage for a moment and then pressed the side of his head against Squall's hand. "I doubt it will," Squall observed, scratching behind the dog's ears to its obvious delight.

Seifer knew that they'd be fine up until the point that the Galbadians would pass by the square on their way to the radio tower. He had no intention of following them this time; been there, done that. What he didn't know was what happened at the square. It could be tame and boring or...

The dog backed away from Squall and stared at the northernmost side of the square. Letting out a frightened howl, the mutt raced from the square yelping like his tail had been lit on fire.

"What the...?" Zell began, not hearing the soft sound of marching that was slowly growing more audible.

"Over here!" Seifer signaled for his team members to stop what they were doing and join him around the corner of a broken down gift store just in time to watch a platoon of soldiers head off towards the northern section of the city.

"We could take them," Zell muttered.

Squall silenced the tattooed blond with an irritated look. "Where are they headed?"

"Looks like they're headed for the old radio tower," Seifer observed. "I can't think of anything else over there that has any value."

"The tower doesn't have any value," Zell objected. "All radio signals are permanently jammed."

"All it takes is enough power to boost the signal and viola!" Seifer walked out into the open as the last Galbadian soldier disappeared around the corner. "The interference gets punched through. Instant, if fuzzy, broadcast television. Still... it would take one hell of a generator to get the sort of signal boost necessary..." Seifer stared at the tower in the distance. Despite everything, his curiosity had be piqued again, except this time it was more intellectual than violent. He'd never actually found out how the tower was put back into use before.

"You're not thinking about going over there, are you?" Zell demanded.

Smirking, Seifer took advantage of the situation to taunt Zell. "I'm thinking about it. Scared Chicken-wuss? This wouldn't be a good time to get cold feet." Laughing, he automatically dodged Zell's swipes. "No, we're not going to the tower. Our orders are to keep the Square secure once the enemy starts retreating. We can't do that and investigate the tower at the same time."

A headache was starting to build between his eyes and Seifer absently rubbed the place where is scar should have been.

Squall adjusted his grip on his revolver and stared up towards the rooftops. "If the full moon is good for snipers, why aren't there any?"

Giving the tops of the buildings another glance, Seifer shrugged. "Maybe they don't care about keeping Dollet. If there's something they're here for specifically, then keeping the city in chaos might simply be a distraction."

"What, all this death is just a... a distraction? That can't be right..." Zell shook his head in denial.

"The civilians aren't Galbadians, so they're probably meaningless to the soldiers. Acceptable casualties or some such shit." Seifer shuddered imperceptibly, remembering just how easy that mentality was to fall into.

Or maybe not imperceptibly, given the way Squall tilted his head to the side, an expression akin to worry flashing across his face for a moment. Seifer didn't quite recognize what the look meant, but it sent a flash of unfamiliar heat through Seifer's stomach.

"Jeez..." Zell shadowboxed in Seifer's direction. "How can you say that so calmly?"

The sound of gunfire and the sight of bullets bouncing off the cadet's protect shields dragged the trio back into the fight. Casting additional spells for safety, Seifer whirled around to face the sudden onslaught. There were at least ten soldiers, all looking to retreat to the city limits by tearing their way through the City Square. Seifer rushed forward and swung Hyperion into the first soldier; the blade had just enough momentum to cut into the armor. He pulled the trigger, blasting the corpse into another soldier.

Cleaving through the weak spot on another Galbadian's armor, Seifer fell into the blurry, violent rhythm of battle. Some fought back with swords and other melee weapons while more soldiers joined the fight as they retreated from elsewhere in the city. The sound of gunfire was almost deafening...

And then there was quiet.

Somehow the three cadets had found their way to different sides of the Square, nearly forming an equilateral triangle. Surveying their positions and carnage through the detached haze and rush that came from adrenaline, Seifer couldn't quite help the smile that appeared on his face. "What a party," he drawled.

"You're sick," Zell growled.

Seifer didn't answer since he didn't really care what the Chicken-wuss thought of him. He was more concerned with the preternatural calm that had fallen around them. The silence was ringing in his ears and Seifer had the feeling that something was about to break.

Behind Squall, a body stirred. The soldier was staggering to his feet, bringing his sword to bear...

Before Seifer even realized what he was doing, his semi-automatic was in his hand and a bullet caught the Galbadian soldier in the throat.

"Seifer!"

Squall's voice sounded unnaturally frightened in Seifer's ears and, for a moment, he couldn't think of why. Obviously he'd been aiming for the soldier and not Squall, so why...

A curious sort of shock spread through Seifer as he looked down, numbly, to see a silvery blade sticking our of the right of his chest. Blood glinted on the blade for a few seconds before it was yanked back out. Stumbling forward, Seifer dropped to his knees while his gun and Hyperion slipped through slack fingers.

A roaring noise swept around him as dark spots danced before his eyes. A hand latched onto his shoulder and Seifer looked up dimly to see wide cerulean eyes and chestnut colored hair: Squall. The younger cadet said something, but Seifer couldn't make it out. Warmth spread around the wound in his chest, however, and then the pain kicked in. Seifer bit down a scream as a curaga spell slowly began to knit him back together.

"B-squad?"

Squall looked up and Seifer followed his gaze to see a tiny, redheaded girl in a cadet uniform bounce up to them. "Tilmitt?" Squall blinked in surprise at the girl's speedy arrival. "Yeah, this is B-squad."

"I'm from A-squad, but Xu reassigned me to messenger duty. I'm supposed to deliver a message to B-squad's team leader," Selphie trilled brightly, not even giving the battlegrounds a second look.

"That'd be me," Seifer ground out. The healing was over, though incomplete, and the pain was sharp in his chest. "What's the message?'

"The deadline for the retreat has been moved up to o'four hundred." Selphie peered at Seifer worriedly. "What happened to you?"

"I wanted to know what if felt like to be a kebab. I don't recommend it; oddly enough, it hurts," Seifer joked as he reclaimed his gun from the ground and holstered it before picking up his gunblade. Checking his watch, Seifer was relieved to see that there was a little over an hour before four o'clock. "Do they want us to start pulling out immediately?"

"Nah; they just want us out by then." Selphie fixed Seifer with a critical stare. "You're still bleeding. Cure!" She made a quick gesture and a few sparks of magic made their way over to the wounded blonde.

The pain in Seifer's chest diminished a bit more as the magic settled. "Then we'll stay here a little while longer." He got to his feet and walked over to the fountain, his boots making soft sloshing noises in the water on the ground. Locating a dry section of the fountain's rim, Seifer took a seat and attempted to catch his breath and compartmentalize the pain. All the while, his eyes kept drifting over to Squall.

Blue eyes widened in shock and only the attention Seifer was giving Squall alerted him to the shorter specialist's notice of something wicked headed their way.

"See if you can tackle this, SeeD!"

The four cadets jerked their heads up in the direction of the voice even as they started casting new defensive spells. A Galbadian soldier dressed in the red armor of a ranking officer stood on the edge of the bridge leading to the radio tower. Behind him crouched something much larger and more dangerous than a mere soldier.

"Son of a bitch," Seifer breathed, taking in the sight of what was basically a giant metal spider. It was an X-ATM092, Galbadia's latest war machine. Unlike it's predecessors, it ran completely on AI without any support personnel hidden inside. It came equipped with nanites that acted as its repair system and could easily come back to eighty or ninety percent efficiency within minutes of being knocked down to as low as twenty percent.

Seifer vaguely recalled Squall, Selphie, and Zell being chased by one during the final exam in the other timeline. He had a stronger memory of setting one loose on Edea's orders in the D-District prison as 'punishment' after Squall and the others escaped.

Suddenly, Seifer felt a great deal of empathy for the people who'd been caught in the crossfire.

The X-ATM092 leaped over the Galbadian soldier and then scuttled forward, moving horrifyingly fast on its spindly legs. Seifer jumped to his feet and rolled out of the way as it crashed through what was left of the fountain.

"Fuck," Seifer gasped as his chest sent sharp, dark streaks of pain across his vision. "I think it's time to retreat now!"

"Ya think?" Zell shot back, sending out a low-level electric spell that barely phased the spider.

Sheathing Hyperion, Seifer tugged the xep-2 off his shoulder and took aim at the mechanical monster's grill. All four shots hit the target, the precision of the shots higher than Seifer had anticipated considering how his hands were shaking from pain and exertion. The grill sparked with the electricity unleashed by the xep-2's magic-infused bullets. The smell of melted metal and plastic filled the air as a few of it's minor systems burned out.

"Quetzalcoatl!" Selphie yelled from somewhere behind Seifer.

Seifer rushed to get out of the way as Quetzalcoatl appeared in the Square. Made from pure electricity, the Guardian Force was an amazing sight. It spiraled up, high into the air above them, before crashing down on the X-ATM092 with the force equivalent to the pent up energy of a small thunderstorm.

The spider stumbled, but it wasn't down for the count yet. It lashed out towards Selphie, but Seifer had different plans. He was closest to Selphie and shoved her out of the way as the X-ATM092 clawed at her. It grabbed Seifer instead and lifted him into the air. The xep-2 was knocked from his grip as Seifer felt himself get tossed into the front door of a nearby office building.

The last thing Seifer was aware of as he collapsed to the ground, and into darkness, was Squall's voice shouting orders.

* * *

Seifer crept back to awareness slowly. At first he just knew it was bright and that his head hurt. His eyes opened for a moment before shutting tightly. He groaned softly and brought an arm up to block out the light. "Ugh... did anyone catch the license plate on the truck that hit me?"

He heard Zell laugh. "X-ATM092," the tattooed blond responded dryly from somewhere off to the right.

From the left, Xu asked, "how do you manage to find so much trouble?"

Moving his arm away, Seifer forced himself to open his eyes. He struggled to sit up, a process which grew easier when someone – Squall – helped prop him up. "I'm just that talented, Xu. It takes real skill to pull off my level of trouble-magnet." The room swam dizzily in front of him and he shut his eyes again to block out the sight. "The last thing I remember is getting knocked into a wall by that mechanical spider. What did I miss?"

"It whacked you a couple of times after that," Zell offered. "Your right leg is broken... amongst other things."

Taking a quick mental inventory, Seifer winced as the dull ache in his right leg made itself known. It was immobilized by a metal brace, but he knew it could have been worse. All the same... "Ow..."

"Selphie hit the spider a few more times with Quetzalcoatl and I grabbed the xep-2 from where you dropped it," Squall took over the explanation. "The X-ATM092 was knocked out from our attacks, so we found you and got back to the subs as fast as possible."

"Except that spider-thingy regenerated itself and came tearing after us," Selphie chimed in. "Instructor Trepe was manning the machine gun, though, and she let loose on it." She mimed blasting an invisible target and then made little explosive hand motions and noises to represent the X-ATM092's demise. "Now we're almost back to Balamb."

"Actually, we're pulling into dock right now," Quistis announced, walking into the room. A small bump reverberated throughout the C-sub, lending credence to her words. "Welcome back to the land of the living, Seifer," she added.

Squall stood and helped Seifer get to his feet. At the sound of the blond's hiss of pain, the brunet shifted them so that most of Seifer's weight was leaning against him and not pressuring his broken leg. One pointed glower later and Zell scurried over to Seifer's other side to lend a hand.

"We'd have used a few more cure spells, but apparently quite a few have already been used on you tonight. Though I'm sure you don't remember most of them," Xu commented. "As you're aware, there's a limit to how much healing a person's body can take at one time."

"I kinda figured that," Seifer muttered, concentrating on hobbling towards the exit without reacting too much to his injuries. It was a difficult task. Pain radiated up his leg with every jarring motion. Finally, though, he made it out onto the docks and squinted in the face of the early morning light. There was a crowd out waiting for the cadets and Seifer was hoping to see Fujin and Raijin's faces somewhere amongst the onlookers.

His posse found him first, however.

"SEIFER!" yelled the diminutive silver-haired woman as she dodged through the crowd to reach her friend. "HURT!"

"I'll be fine," Seifer attempted to reassure her even as he felt inexplicably guilty for causing her to worry over him. Fujin didn't seem to be particularly comforted by Seifer's words, however, so he turned to the buff fishing-enthusiast. "Rai, get over here and tell Fuu I'm not irreparable, will ya?"

"He's right, Fuu," Raijin agreed, grinning at the sight of his mostly-intact friend. "We'll just hand him off to Doc Kadowaki and she'll work her magic, ya know? Though... ya kinda look like ya got into a fight with a food processor and lost, ya know?"

"Gee, thanks, Rai. You know just how to cheer a person up, don't you?" Seifer snarked.

Selphie giggled and bounced up to Fujin and Raijin. "I like the imagery," she declared. "I'm Selphie, by the way."

"I'm Raijin."

"FUJIN."

"So, you two are Seifer's friends? Wanna see if we can convince Instructor Trepe to let you both ride in the van with us?" Selphie fearlessly hooked her arms with the duo's. "I'll bet we could guilt trip her into it with very little effort."

"AFFIRMATIVE!" Fujin agreed, letting Selphie hang onto her. Spotting Quistis on the docks, the trio marched off.

"Did Selphie just..." Zell trailed off, staring at Fujin in shock.

"Yes," Seifer answered, also staring after his friends in surprise. "Selphie just got accepted by Fujin, no questions asked and no mauling what-so-ever. Hell... even I got smacked around a lot when I first met her."

"She's a walking miracle." The martial artist shook his head and waved to a lady further down on the docks. "Hey, Ma!"

Seifer tugged closer to Squall and further away from Zell as his fellow blond began to bounce up and down. "Either stop hopping or go away, Chicken-wuss," Seifer growled, wincing as his right leg was painfully jostled.

"Sorry..."

The crowd moved out of the way as a few of the SeeD vans began driving away. B-squad's van, however, backed up as close to the docks as it could get. The back doors popped open and a ramp slid down.

"Instructor Trepe cleared us to ride with ya," Raijin announced, leaning against the van's door frame and waving at the squad. "That Selphie chick is something else, ya know? How someone that hyper can be so manipulative..." he shook his head and grinned widely.

"Score for Tilmitt," Seifer agreed. "Now, how about getting out of the way so the rest of us can get in the van?"

"Oh, right." Raijin hopped down to the ground and stepped well out of the way.

Once the path was clear, the three cadets began walking – or hobbling, as the case may be – up the ramp and into the van.

Seifer had never been so relieved to be on his way back to Garden. As he sat down on the bench inside the vehicle, it was as though everything he'd been through, whether he'd been conscious for the experience or not, was crashing down on him. While everyone else began situating themselves, Seifer scooted into the corner, leaned his head against the wall, and closed his eyes.

The doors slammed shut, but Seifer didn't notice. He'd already fallen asleep.


	2. Chapter 2

Disclaimer - No one involved in the making of this fanfiction owns the game involved in the making of this fanfiction.

A/N - We've gone through and rewritten the chapter to make it flow better, expanded on a few scenes and added a new section that takes place out on the balcony during the dance. Kit and I are having a lot of fun with the 'Director's Cut.' ^_^

10/30/12 - Re-edit.

_Chapter Two_

"Your leg is broken, three of your ribs are cracked, and that mostly healed bruise on your temple likely started off as a concussion. What part of 'you aren't going anywhere' are you not comprehending, child?" Dr. Kadowaki demanded, planting her hands on her hips.

"But they'll be announcing who made it into SeeD any minute now," Seifer protested, letting the 'child' comment slide. Dr. Kadowaki was basically the only person, aside from Matron, that Seifer didn't mind hearing that sort of thing from. After years of patching him up every time he was hurt, Kadowaki had more than earned the right to use terms of parental endearment on him.

"If you got in, they'll send someone to let you know," Kadowaki assured him. "The good news will be arriving soon enough, I'm sure. Now stay put or I'll bring out the restraints and keep you in this infirmary by force."

"Kinky."

"Perverted comments will not get you thrown out of the infirmary, so stop trying. You'll only get stuck here longer."

"Dammit..." Seifer groaned and leaned back into the pillows, which were just a touch too starched to be comfortable. "This sucks."

"In a few hours I'll be able to do something about your ribs, but you'll have to wait at least a day before the magic used on you dissipates enough for it to be safe for me to heal your leg. I don't want to run the risk of healing magic become less effective on you. You find enough trouble without being SeeD; it'll be even worse once you earn the title, I'm sure." Dr. Kadowaki's voice softened as she added, "I know you're anxious about the results of today's exam, but have a little faith in yourself. I certainly do."

"Thanks Doc," Seifer responded, feeling a little better after hearing the confidence in her tone. Shutting his eyes, Seifer listened as the door snicked open and shut as Kadowaki left the room. Though he didn't exactly fall asleep, Seifer dozed for a while until he heard the soft snicking noise of the door again. Seifer opened his eyes to the sight of Squall hovering unfcomfortably at the foot of his bed. The brunet kept glancing over his shoulder through the glass where a pretty girl, who held a superficial resemblance to Squall, was chatting with Doctor Kadowaki over by the desks. Seifer couldn't help but think, _heh, here comes puberty boy.f_

"Something the matter?"

"Huh?" Squall shook his head and turned his full attention on Seifer. Unlike the blond, the shorter gunblade specialist clearly had the chance to change back into his normal outfit. While the brunet was clad in his ass-hugging leather armor once more, Seifer still felt out of sorts in his ripped and blood-stained cadet uniform. "We both made SeeD," Squall told him, holding out a small box meant for jewelry or, in this case, rank insignia and a small badge that could be used to get into SeeD specific conveniences across the world.

"Yes!" Seifer grinned and laughed, ignoring the dull pain caused by his injuries. "What about Chicken-wuss and Coppercurls?"

"Zell and Selphie made it, too. So did Nida Erickson."

"Told Dincht we'd make it." Seifer laughed again, this time less out of elation and more out of relief. He winced a little as his ribs cracked in protest, but suddenly all the pain was well worth it. He'd made SeeD. It was one of his long-held dreams come true. Though less glamorous than being a Sorceress Knight, being a SeeD definitely wasn't a second best choice.

"The others were made Privates. We're both Sergeants."

"Headmaster Kramer must be pretty excited to have gunblade specialists in SeeD now," Seifer observed.

"Yeah... he is. He... used to specialize in gunblades too, right?"

"I think so." Seifer paused and then added, "I doubt he could handle one anymore, though. He's spent too long behind that desk without breaking for training."

Squall nodded absently in agreement, glancing over his shoulder just in time to watch the pretty girl leave the infirmary.

"Who is that girl anyway?" Seifer asked. "You keep staring at her."

"I'm not sure... she seems familiar, like I've met her before but just can't remember." Squall shrugged. "It's not important."

"Well, you seem bothered by her." Seifer paused and thought for a moment. "Though, now that you've mentioned it... she seems kind of familiar to me too. Maybe she used to be a cadet here and flunked out or..." Seifer trailed off in thought and then shrugged. "You're probably right. It's not important. Anyway, thanks for bringing me the news and the stuff."

"Headmaster Cid asked me to." Squall paused and shifted restlessly. "He also said that if you're released from the infirmary before the dance starts then you should try to show up at the ball."

"She'll probably let me out once my ribs are healed," Seifer mused, more to himself than anything. "So I guess I'll be making an appearance at the ball after all. It's just as well; I made a promise to someone and if I don't show up then Fujin will have to fulfill the promise for me... and then murder me quietly in my sleep." Seeing the raised eyebrow on Squall's face, Seifer elaborated a little. "Fujin doesn't like the person I made the promise to. Basically, though, I'm just introducing a potential client to Kramer."

"At least on crutches you won't have to worry about someone trying to make you dance." Squall shuddered faintly as he left the room.

Eyes drifting shut, Seifer recalled the way Squall had danced with Rinoa in his memories of the other future. The two had made a rather fetching couple and, once Squall stopped trying to con Rinoa into thinking he was the worst dancer in all of Garden, they'd danced beautifully together. Seifer knew he shouldn't change what happened between the two at the dance. Fairy tale romances were pretty rare and it wouldn't be fair to deny Squall his chance at being happy with the raven-haired 'princess.' It was just... Seifer rather liked the idea of spending the evening trying to get Squall to chat while fending off any distractions. And, come to think of it, Rinoa had always felt more like a distraction than anything else...

* * *

"Aw man, look at you," Raijin teased. "Dressed up in a field uniform and on crutches. Never thought I'd see something like this, ya know?"

"Shut up, Rai," Seifer snapped. The crutches were inconvenient and irritating, which made Seifer feel like he looked ridiculous in his messed up uniform as he hobbled around. Really, Seifer was very, very tempted to start using one of the Hyne damned sticks like a sword in order to teach his friend a lesson in being quiet. "I hate this," he muttered softly as he took another awkward step away from the infirmary.

Tapping Seifer's shoulder in order to catch his attention, Fujin offered her honorary brother a faint smile. "It'll get better, Seifer. Just skip the dance."

"Unless that means you're willing to introduce Rinoa to Headmaster Kramer on my behalf, I really ought to go," Seifer responded, returning Fujin's smile. "I know you can't stand her, but I did promise to help out the Forest Owls one last time."

"Matter of honor," Fujin sighed in understanding.

"What happened to that word quota of yours, Fuu?" Seifer asked. She'd been doing a stellar job of keeping her daily word count low lately, but she didn't seem to concerned with it at the moment.

"EXCEPTION!" Fujin's expression grew worried. "You're my brother and I don't like seeing you get helped off a C-sub looking like something that was run through a blender." She scowled at him. "I never want to see you that way again, okay?"

"Fuu... I'm SeeD now. I can't promise..."

"Lie to me."

"Fuu..." Seifer sighed and rolled his eyes. "I promise you won't see me looking that bad again." As he spoke the words she wanted to hear, Seifer finally found the rhythm necessary to effectively use the crutches without stumbling around every few steps.

"Or worse," Fuu insisted.

"Or worse," he echoed dutifully, while wondering how hard it would be to ensure she didn't see him after his next big injury, whenever that might be.

"Lie or not, I'm holding you to that promise," Fujin warned him him before walking ahead of the other two members of the posse and out into Garden's main hub. Almost immediately, some idiot rammed into her. "WATCH IT!"

"You watch it, bitch," was the snippy response.

"Do you have any idea who she is?" Raijin drawled as he and Seifer made their way into the hub.

"An idiot like you, I suppose," the kid, some auburn haired cadet that Seifer thought he recognized, growled. "Out of my way. I'm gonna be late to class because of you losers."

"She's the new leader of the Disciplinary Committee. The last one just made SeeD," Seifer corrected, earning the kid's attention as he idly blocked the way with a crutch. "So you probably just made her list, Cadet Janson."

"How do you know my name?" the kid demanded.

"Come on, kid, you can't be that blind. Make a few guesses."

The kid's expression morphed from 'arrogant brat' to 'oh shit' in a matter of seconds as the identities of the trio finally sank in. "You're Seifer Almasy... she's Fujin Engel... and he's Raijin Colbert."

"Yep," Seifer agreed brightly, tapping the Janson's shins with the tip of his crutch. "Running in the hallways is the least of your problems, kid."

Janson was practically shaking now. "I-I'm s-s-sorry. I-it won't happen again..."

Fujin made a show of thinking it over before waving her hand dismissively. "DEPART!"

Lowering the crutch, Seifer snickered when the brat still managed to trip on it in his haste to leave.

"You're making me the new DC leader?" Fujin stared at him in shock. "But... I'll probably be leaving at the end of the summer to attend college."

"I know. It'll give you time to pick someone to take over when you leave and teach them the ropes. You'll certainly do a better job than I could at training someone." Seifer gave her his most mischievous smirk. "I'm not a civilian anymore, Fuu. There's no one I can think of better suited to lead the DC in my place than you, even if it is only going to be for a few months."

"Better you than me, ya know?" Rai chimed in, hooking an arm around the silver-haired girl's shoulders to give her a half-hug. "I take orders better than I give 'em. Ya earned it, Fuu."

"Thanks," she whispered, blushing and leaning against Rai slightly. Seifer's smirk morphed into a happy smile as he idly wondered who they thought they were kidding.

Quirking an eyebrow at the two before hobbling off in the direction of the dorms, Seifer announced, "I'd like to go collapse in my dorm now. You two can snuggle later."

"WHAT?"

Raijin and Fujin leaped apart, identical blushes appearing on their cheeks. Seifer shook his head, laughing to himself. Eventually they'd have to fess up. They were getting too obvious, really.

* * *

"_Squall!" Seifer was amused as the brunet turned to glare at him, his hair plastered to his forehead from the long walk back to Garden from Balamb. Maybe commandeering the truck along with Fuu and Rai hadn't been the greatest idea, but Seifer already knew he'd failed the SeeD exam again. The day had started off on the wrong foot – his uniform had gone missing thanks to the laundry service having mistakenly taken his along with Fujin's – and managed to get a little worse every step of the way. The spar with Squall had seemed like a good idea until he'd been standing over the lithe cadet's stunned, bleeding form moments before watching Squall's revolver arc up to give Seifer a little payback. He'd gotten out of control again, which was happening more and more lately._

_The lack of self restraint worried Seifer when he thought about it, but the realization that something might be wrong with him came and went, never quite managing to stay in mind._

"_Did you hear about the communication tower in Dollet?" Seifer continued, pushing his worries aside. "We would have been heroes, if it weren't for that withdraw order."_

"_You were only looking for a fight," Quistis accused, walking up with Xu. _

_Seifer narrowed his eyes, glaring at the instructor. Maybe if she'd take her eyes off of Squall's ass more than once every long while... "my dear Instructor, I'm hurt." Seifer dramatically brought his right hand up to his chest over his heart and mock staggered. "Those are rather cruel words for an aspiring student. A mediocre instructor like you will never understand." Honestly, Seifer thought calling her mediocre was being too kind, but Xu looked like an offended dachshund – two seconds away from going straight for the ankles._

"_Seifer, don't be so stuck on yourself," Xu hissed. "You'll take all the responsibility for leaving the designated area." In other words, _you'll never make SeeD even if the rest of your team does._ Seifer heard her real meaning loud and clear._

_Nodding, Seifer figured they didn't need to know Squall had wanted to go too. At least one of them ought to make SeeD today. "Isn't it the captain's duty to take the best possible action?"_

"_Seifer," Xu responded sweetly, "you'll never be a SeeD. Calling yourself a captain is a joke." She walked off with a smile on her face._

_Never before had Seifer so badly wanted hit a girl. Hands clenched into fists, he steeled himself for further censure as Headmaster Kramer walked up. _

"_Seifer, you will be disciplined for your irresponsible behavior," Kramer began and Seifer practically bit his tongue to keep from commenting of some of Kramer's own irresponsible behavior... all done in the name of sparing Garden from scandal. "You must follow your orders exactly during combat."_

Never mind that following plans exactly during battle can get people killed if there isn't enough elasticity in the plans to account for the battle going to shit... _once again, Seifer had to fight to stay quiet. Hyne... he hated it here. Why did he want to be SeeD again?_

"_But I'm not entirely without sympathy for you. I don't want you all to become machines. I want you all to be able to think and act for yourselves. I am..."_

_One of the Shumi guardians walked up and interrupted Kramer's impromptu speech. "Headmaster Cid, you have some business in your office..."_

_Kramer sighed and nodded. "There are so many issues at hand here."_

_Avoiding Squall's gaze, Seifer tried not to think about whether or not he was being stared at out of disdain or pity. Either way, he didn't want to see the expression in the otherwise stoic brunet's blue eyes. Scowling after the Headmaster, all Seifer could really think was, _way to send mixed messages, Kramer.

Seifer shot up in bed and took a deep breath to calm the anger he'd felt in the dream. Glancing at the clock, he dropped back down and sighed. He'd gotten maybe two hours of sleep. After that strange dream – or memory, really – he didn't think he'd be able to fall asleep again for quite some time, especially considering he'd spent most of the morning sleeping.

The dance was that evening and he didn't particularly want to think about it, but his mind had other ideas. As the dream slipped away, he found the weird thoughts about Squall, Rinoa, and distractions were threatening to come back. Seifer was hesitant to find out where his thoughts were leading and suddenly he felt too antsy to stay alone in the dorm.

"Fine, fine," he muttered to himself, "I'll go find something to do." Levering himself out of bed, Seifer grabbed his crutches and hobbled his way out of his room, through the tiny common area, and over to the main door. "I'll go stir crazy in here for certain," he muttered, triggering the door's open command.

One hop-step out the door later, Seifer found himself dazed on his ass in the hallway as he looked up at Squall. Neither of them had been paying enough attention and crashed into each other gracelessly. Staring up into Squall's startled eyes, Seifer was struck by just how blue those eyes really were up close. From a distance, they seemed to be more gray than he was seeing at the moment.

All in all, the situation was oddly reminiscent of the previous morning, except with a pair of crutches strewn across the the hall. A small smile and laugh escaped the blond.

"Are you okay?" Squall inquired. His expression clearly stated, however, that he thought Seifer was going crazy.

"Yeah, fine." Seifer grabbed one of his crutches and accepted a hand up from Squall, who then grabbed Seifer's other crutch and handed it to him. Even through their gloves, Seifer's hand felt oddly warm from the contact. "This is the second time in as many days that I've collided with you while leaving my room," he observed. "It's... a little amusing, I guess. Neither of us are usually this clumsy."

"Oh..." Squall didn't really seem to get it.

"Never mind. So... where are you off to?"

"The training center."

"Why?" Now Seifer was giving Squall the 'are you crazy' look. "You made SeeD just a few hours ago. You were up during ungodly hours of the night running around Dollet Square killing Galbadian soldiers. What possible reason could you have for wanting more training?"

"I..." Squall trailed off, his eyes growing distant as his teeth gnawed on his lower lip for a moment. Seifer had to struggle to keep from focusing in on the way Squall's lip turned a fuller shade of red. "It's nothing. There's no reason."

"Uh-uh." Seifer hobbled as fast as he could to keep up as Squall tried to walk towards the dorm exit without appearing to be running away. "Now I'm really curious. What's wrong?"

"What's wrong?" Squall stopped fast and then reached out to keep Seifer stable when he attempt to do the same on unsteady crutches. "_You_. That's what's wrong. I froze when you shot the guy behind me and you were nearly killed because of my failure. I shouldn't have been made SeeD if I'm going to screw up like that." The brunet paled, obviously not having intended to say all of that out loud instead of leaving it all within the safety of his thoughts.

Seifer's smile faded. "You don't seriously think that, do you?" Seeing Squall's slight wince, Seifer sighed and, awkwardly, ran a hand through his hair while managing to keep his crutches from falling away from him. "What happened was not your fault, Squall. No one said anything, but I know it wasn't Zell or Selphie who took charge of our escape. They aren't the reason we all made it back or that I'm still here – still alive. You took over.

"Everyone freezes once. What matters is that you came through when it counted." Seifer paused and then added, "just don't tell anyone I said any of that or I'll deny it... vehemently."

Squall rolled his eyes, but he relaxed his posture anyway. "Whatever."

"Now, you are not going to the training center. You are coming with me to..." as they stepped out into Garden's main hub, Seifer could distantly hear the sound of music. He'd forgotten what was happening in the quad that day, what with the distraction of the SeeD exam, earning his place in the organization, and spending so much quality time in the infirmary. "We're going to the quad," he declared. "There are band tryouts today and we're going to listen to wanna-be rockers mangle all the songs I like."

"And if I were to refuse?"

"I would have to threaten you with my crutches," Seifer joked.

A soft noise that was almost laughter escaped Squall's throat even as a smile tugged at his lips. Seifer grinned, inordinately pleased with the other teen's reaction. "Whatever," Squall responded. "Lead the way."

* * *

"Seifer?"

The blond man barely managed to refrain from cringing at the high-pitched, super-excited, childish way Rinoa shouted his name. "Rinoa? I didn't realize you would arriving so soon." He paused and then turned to Squall and, before the brunet could beat a hasty retreat, he added, "Squall, this is Rinoa. She's a friend I met in Timber last summer. Rinoa, this is Squall. We both made SeeD today."

"Congratulations!" Rinoa's voice returned to a normal tone, much to Seifer's relief. Holding out a hand to Squall, she added, "nice to meet you, Squall."

Squall lifted an eyebrow, ignored the proffered hand, and glowered at Seifer's amused countenance for a moment before telling Rinoa "likewise" in a tone that clearly said he didn't give a damn about meeting her. Rinoa reluctantly lowered her hand in face of the evidence that Squall was less than friendly.

"I'm attempting to work on his social skills," Seifer teased, smirking as Squall's glare grew in power.

Finally taking notice of the crutches, Rinoa gasped, "how did you break your leg? Shouldn't that have been healed already?"

Shrugging somewhat unresponsively, Seifer told her, "only so much magic can be used on a person at once. I've got to let some of it dissipate before the Doc can finish patching me up."

"Well... it'll be fixed by the dance, right?"

"No," Seifer responded shortly. He actually liked dancing, but he had zero inclination to dance with Rinoa. Especially considering the way she was looking at him, like all she had to do was bat her eyes and he'd reconsider his decision to break up with her.

The amps let out a whine of protest as the guitarist on stage overreached his abilities. The trio winced simultaneously at the horrid noise. "Oh come on," Seifer groused. "Even I can play better than that."

"Oh, really?" Squall challenged. "Then why aren't you signed up to try out?"

"If I did play, Selphie might try to rope me into her festival committee... literally. I wouldn't put it past her to lasso me and buy Fujin's help in forcing me to be her guitar-playing slave. She's the one running the tryouts, after all. Coppercurls is hunting for potential victims." Seifer shuddered at the thought of the overly hyper girl stalking him through the halls trying to convince him to join her festival committee. The tiny SeeD would be more than capable of twisting his arm to make him do her bidding, of that Seifer had no doubt.

"Whatever." Squall settled down on a nearby bench. "If you're going to make excuses..."

"I'm not making excuses!"

Rinoa glanced uncertainly between the duo. "Um... Seifer? I was kind of hoping to talk with you... alone."

"Don't worry, Rin," Seifer hoped that he could distract her in order to dodge what he was afraid was headed his way. "I spoke with Headmaster Kramer yesterday morning before my exam. He's more than willing to talk with you about the possibility of the Forest Owls becoming a client of SeeD. He's looking forward to meeting you at the dance tonight."

"Really? That's great... but that isn't what I wanted to talk to you about."

"Rin... you won't like what I have to say if you plan on pushing the subject," Seifer's voice grew a little chilly. "My response hasn't changed since the summer. You need to learn to take 'no' as an answer." Turning to Squall, Seifer latched on to the excuse the brunet had inadvertently given him for escaping Rinoa. "Fine, I'll play a song, just to prove that I can. Then you can get that smug expression off your face." Between the evils of Rinoa and Selphie, Seifer would take the overly hyper redhead over the overly emotional Sorceress-to-be any day.

"What expression? His face hasn't changed once since he's been here," Rinoa muttered sulkily as Seifer started hobbling towards the short line by the stage. "Seifer, wait!"

"Rinoa,_ sit down_," Squall commanded, startling the girl enough to make her comply.

He looked back for a second, just long enough to flash Squall a grateful smile. Minutes later, Seifer found himself sitting on a chair on the small stage with jitters starting to unnerve him. It was one thing to fight in front of an audience; Seifer was damn talented with a gunblade, so he didn't have to worry about making an idiot of himself that way. But singing and playing in front of an audience... that was an entirely different story. But he started strumming the borrowed guitar anyway, letting his fingers trace the familiar chords for the song "Riot" by Three Days Grace. Almost instantly, he relaxed and let thoughts about Rinoa, Squall, SeeD, Sorceresses... and everything else that had been on his mind lately fall away from his thoughts.

Grinning irrepressibly, Seifer waited for a few moments before opening his mouth to sing as well. While Seifer would never claim to be the greatest guitarist or singer in Balamb – not to say he wasn't talented, because he was – he knew this song would be difficult for him to mangle. The cheers that greeted him when he finished – along with some teasing, and not-so-teasing, calls for an encore – were a nice bolster to his ego and helped make up for having to put up with the crutches.

Then he got back to Squall and Rinoa... who were rather pointedly ignoring one another. They were so different that Seifer had to take a moment to wonder how they managed to wind up together in the other timeline. It was rather like pondering the theory of matter and antimatter. Seifer vaguely recalled hearing about it in one of his science classes; matter and antimatter would annihilate one another and all that would be left was the light... or in the case of Squall and Rinoa, the after images of the explosion. He simply couldn't imagine anything else.

"So..." Seifer trailed off as he took a seat beside Squall on the bench.

"Not to bad," Squall hedged.

"Tch," Seifer rolled his eyes. "Nothing impresses you."

"Well, I thought you were impressive," Rinoa all but simpered.

"..." Seifer was starting to wish he'd stayed in his room and let Squall go off to the training center. At least then he could have avoided Rinoa's complete inability to acknowledge rejection.

"I'm going to get ready for the party," Rinoa declared. "I'll see you both there," she added, sauntering off before anyone could respond.

Squall blinked in confusion. "The dance isn't for another three hours. Why...?"

"'Cause she's a girl. Girls... are really, really weird and require lots of time to prepare for spending evenings in flashy dresses, uncomfortable shoes, and unreasonable amounts of makeup. Well, girls like Rinoa, anyway."

"She wants to impress you in particular." Squall gave Seifer an unreadable stare. "Is she your ex?"

"Yeah. We dated during the summer. She got clingy and irritating after a few weeks though; I never had a minute to myself or to spend with Fuu and Rai. So I broke it off, but she wasn't used to being the one who got dumped... as I'm sure you could see." Seifer felt rather surprised by Squall's curiosity, but decided not to question it. "I agreed to help her out because I liked her fellow Forest Owls in Timber, so I'll be pawning her off on Kramer as soon as I find her at the dance tonight. Once she's on the topic of her group, she get's pretty serious.

"After that... well, I intend to hide somewhere inconspicuous until I can get the hell out of there," Seifer admitted his plans. "With my broken leg, I can easily opt out of dancing, but she'll still try and spend all her time with me if I'm not careful."

"At least I know she'll leave me alone," Squall looked faintly relieved as he spoke.

"Why? Because you two got off on the wrong foot? Even if it turns out that putting the two of you in the same room is about as stupid as letting Coppercurls loose in a bunker full of explosives, Rinoa likes to make impressions on people. Being seen dancing with you at the party tonight would make a major impression." Seeing the confusion in Squall's eyes, Seifer wondered how to explain. Finally, it hit him. "You know how Trepe has that crush on you?" Squall nodded warily. "She doesn't know you... not really. She's attracted to how you're perceived to be; girls like the whole dark, broody, slightly broken persona because they want to be the ones who heal whatever's wrong whether there's anything actually wrong or not. While it's unintentional, you kinda fit the bill in a superficial manner. " He grinned as Squall flushed and scowled.

"Rinoa will see the same thing Trepe does and see the way other girls will stare at you, but not dare dance with you. She'll see it as a challenge; she'll want the bragging rights that go with being the only girl you'll dance with even if she has to literally drag you onto the floor and take the lead herself."

Squall's eyes narrowed slightly and his nose wrinkled almost imperceptibly. Seifer felt oddly transfixed by the sight. "Why did you ever date her?"

"She does have some good qualities," Seifer responded with a shrug. "And... I don't think she always realizes her own motivations sometimes. Besides, she was rebelling against her father by dating me and you know how much I love to be the rebel."

Rolling his eyes, Squall nodded in agreement. "What does she need to hire SeeDs for?"

"The group she's part of – the Forest Owls – is either a band of revolutionaries or terrorists, depending on whether you ask a Timber native or Galbadian. They want to liberate Timber from Galbadian control. The catch is, Rinoa's father is a Galbadian General. The whole rebelling against her father thing doesn't really have much to do with her stance against Galbadia, but it also means there's a limit to how much she can accomplish without professionals. Otherwise she risks getting caught herself, which would put her father, who does support Galbadian rule, in danger. If they don't simply assume he's secretly supporting Timber independence, they'll use her as leverage against him."

"So she needs SeeD to accomplish the things she can't because she cares about her father's safety," Squall filled in.

"Exactly."

"I still don't like her," Squall muttered grumpily, slouching a little further down on the bench.

Snickering, Seifer lurched to his feet with the crutches in hand. "I had hoped that the other musicians would be better than this." He gestured to the stage where yet another song was being brutally butchered. "I'm going to look for Fuu and Rai in the cafeteria. Want to come with me?"

Shrugging, Squall didn't answer. He just stood and followed after Seifer as the blond hobbled out of the quad. About halfway to their destination, Squall finally broke the silence. "Why are you trying so hard to include me?"

"What?" Seifer halted and twisted awkwardly to look at Squall. "Oh... because I finally have your attention.

"You're interesting, unlike so many other around here who are such predictable morons. I've always been curious about you, but you never let anyone have your attention. No one has ever gotten close enough to really know you, though I suppose I've come the closest over the years. But right now I have your full attention in return and I have no intention of wasting it."

"But... why do you care whether you have my attention or not? What does my being interesting have to do with anything?" Squall seemed bewildered by the thought of someone wanting to know him and not remake him into someone else. He did a good job of disguising his reaction, but Seifer had a point about being the person who knew Squall best; he recognized the majority of the brunet's expressions on first glance.

"I..." Seifer paused as his mind blanked. He really didn't know why Squall's attention mattered so much. Something about Squall had always fascinated Seifer; it was that simple. Saying that aloud, however... was not such a good idea. "I don't know. That's just the way it is, I guess."

"SEIFER!"

"Hey, man! We were just about to go looking for you, ya know?"

Fuu and Rai hurried over, interrupting the conversation before it could grow awkward. Fujin smacked Raijin over the head once they came to a stop. "IDIOT!"

"How could Seifer know you were looking for him?" Squall added in what was, for him, an almost cheeky manner.

"EXACTLY!" Fuu whapped Raijin again.

Laughing at his friends' antics, Seifer let a distant part of his mind mull over the curiosity Squall's question had sparked. Why had the brunet always been so important to him anyway? Why was he always so fixated on the brunet... wanting to impress Squall and share things like his 'romantic dream' of being a Knight with him...

Why did remembering the other Squall and Rinoa together make him feel so irritated now?

* * *

With a glare and a rather pointed gesture with his crutches, another annoying girl was dissuaded from approaching Seifer and, by association, Squall. "Haven't they gotten the message yet?"

"Yes. Clearly that's why they keep bothering us. I told you that we should have stayed over there," Squall gestured to a pillar over to their right that was located by the wall in such away that anyone standing there would be mostly hidden from view in at least three of the four cardinal directions.

"I have to keep my promise to Rinoa first," Seifer protested weakly. "then we can go hide... unless you want to abandon me, that is."

"And risk Rinoa finding me first?" Squall shuddered, clearly recalling Seifer's prediction about Rinoa wanting a dance. "No."

Smirking and shaking his head, Seifer stifled his laughter. Sometimes Squall could be so entertaining...

"Seifer!"

"Speak of the devil..." Seifer drawled just low enough that only Squall could hear. Pitching his voice so that the approaching Rinoa could hear him, Seifer added, " I was wondering when you'd show up. Headmaster Kramer is right over there," he gestured to the left where the Headmaster was standing with a group of high level SeeD, including Xu. "I'll introduce you to him."

"Right now?" Rinoa glanced briefly at Squall. "I was hoping to get a few dances in."

It was all Seifer could do to keep from bursting out into laughter at the look of pure horror that briefly flitted across Squall's face. "Squall, isn't that Selphie over there? Didn't you mention earlier you hadn't had a chance to congratulate her on making SeeD with us?" It was a complete lie – Seifer was the one who hadn't had a chance to congratulate Selphie yet – but Seifer didn't mind giving the brunet an out. He enjoyed the look of gratefulness that flashed in Squall's eyes before the gunblade specialist made a beeline for the bouncy redhead, ignoring Rinoa's attempts to call him back. Once Squall was out of earshot, Seifer took a long sip from his champagne and fixed Rinoa with an annoyed look.

"He isn't a toy, you know."

"What?" Rinoa responded sharply, bewildered by the sudden conversation shift.

"Squall isn't a toy you can drag around or play with when it suits you. I know you, Rinoa. I won't date you again no matter how many times or ways you ask. You dislike being alone and want someone's handsome to spend your time with. Squall is certainly handsome."

"He's practically prettier than me," Rinoa admitted with a sigh. "You're right about the fact that I like being around handsome guys during social events. But I don't know what you're getting at beyond that."

"What I'm getting at is that I don't want you jerking him around. I got enough of that from you those few weeks were dating. I'm not inclined to let you try and use my friends to piss off your father. Now... either Timber means enough to you that you'll hire a team of SeeDs and chance missing the rest of the party, or I'm wrong about how much that country means to you."

"Where did you say Headmaster Kramer was? I think I'll introduce myself without your help," Rinoa snapped waspishly.

Seifer gestured again and watched agitatedly as Rinoa stalked off. He clenched his fingers around the crutches and wondered just what in Hyne's name he was doing. Rinoa and Squall were supposed to be having their dance right about now, but he'd just chased her off. He didn't even know why he wanted Rinoa as far away from Squall as possible. It certainly wasn't due to any leftover interest in Rinoa; she was a sweet girl sometimes, but too irritating to be around on a long term basis. How she'd wind up having a fairy-tale romance with Squall, of all people, Seifer had no idea, but... the idea of watching it happen in front of his eyes made his chest tighten.

Letting out a shaky breath, Seifer hobbled over to Selphie and Squall.

"Seifer!" Selphie's bubbly greeting jolted Seifer from his thoughts. "I heard you at the quad earlier. You were the best guitarist all day! You even sing really, really well too. It was such a treat to hear you." She beamed at him and Seifer grinned back, genuinely flattered by her compliment.

"Thanks, Coppercurls." Seifer fidgeted under Squall's curious stare. "Rinoa decided to introduce herself to Kramer alone. I may have intentionally pissed her off." Squall nodded, crossed his arms, and stared off into the sky through the glass windows across the room.

"Rinoa's that girl with black hair and the white dress you were talking to?" Selphie clarified.

"Uh-huh."

"She looks... snooty."

"Uh-huh."

"She's Seifer's ex-girlfriend," Squall muttered sulkily.

Shooting Squall an irritated glare, Seifer found himself following the brunet's gaze to the window just in time to see a falling star.

"You dated her?" Selphie sounded incredulous. "Are snooty girls your type, then?"

Finally, all the laughter he'd been holding back all evening burst out. Seifer couldn't help it and very nearly lost his balance... and his crutches. Even Squall looked amused, though his good humor was likely at Seifer's expense. But the way Squall's lips twitched towards a smile made Seifer okay with it. When he managed to catch his breath, Seifer shook his head. "No. I did not date her because she's snooty. You have to be the weirdest girl I've ever met."

Selphie did a strange little hop and grinned with pride. "So... can I convince you two to join the Festival Committee?"

Seifer blinked in surprise at the non sequitur. "Well that came out of left field."

"Whatever," Squall muttered, still staring out into the dark.

"There's one!" Selphie beamed at Squall, who didn't notice at all.

"Yeah, sure, why not?" Seifer shrugged. "I won't help plan the festivals and whatever else you put together, but I'll help set them up, okay?"

"That's great!" Selphie looked positively thrilled. "Now I've got two!"

"But I won't play the guitar or sing on command."

"Damn..." Selphie pouted. Twisting around, she waved at someone. "I'm gonna see if Zell will join. Congrats on making SeeD, guys!" Taking off like a missile, Selphie homed in on the unsuspecting Zell.

"The fireworks should be starting soon."

"Huh?" Squall jumped and turned his face towards Seifer.

"The fireworks should be starting soon," Seifer repeated. "You were staring at the windows like you were expecting something."

"Oh... I was just thinking."

"Looked more like brooding."

Scowling, Squall returned his gaze to the windows. "What happens next?"

"What do you mean?"

"We spent all our time trying to achieve the goal of becoming SeeDs. So now what happens?"

"We get to fight other people's battles for them," Seifer replied automatically. "They get to act all superior because we're mercenaries fighting for money and not their ideals. But when it comes down to it, if they were really superior then they wouldn't need us... and if they were really so morally superior then they wouldn't be paying people to fight on their behalf anyway."

"That's actually somewhat profound... coming from you," Squall drawled. The fireworks went off, causing the colors in Squall's eyes to dance hypnotically.

Seifer swallowed and managed, if only just, to keep his mind on the conversation and off of Squall's eyes. "Fine. Be that way," he mock pouted. "What comes next is that we go outside on one of those balconies over there," he waved his hand off in the direction of the far end of the ballroom. "We'll watch the fireworks in peace without worrying about someone trying to make you dance."

"Sounds good to me."

Once out on the balcony, Seifer's mind blanked on what to say.

"Why did you decide to date Rinoa anyway. She's an idiot."

"Yeah, sometimes she is," Seifer agreed, wondering why it was that Squall had to be so talkative on this subject. Was he already subconsciously interested in Rinoa? "I didn't date her because she's gorgeous, though it was nice to have the attention of someone that hot at first. She's stubborn when she finds a cause and she is actually intelligent... from an academic standpoint at any rate. She's not a good fighter, unfortunately. She has this ridiculous pinwheel thing that... let's just say she's damn lucky Galbadia sends their rookies to Timber."

"So you liked having to protect her in fights?"

"Not really, but if that had been the only dependency she had, I might have stuck it out longer." Seifer shrugged. "She acts, sometimes, like she's defined by the guy she's dating at the time. She only breaks up with her boyfriends when she wants to redefine herself. I'm not sure, but I'm pretty certain I was the first guy to break up with her.

"I guess I didn't like the idea of her using me as a reference point."

"Oh..." Squall watched the fireworks for a long moment in silence.

"Would you look at that? Seems Fuu and Rai couldn't resist dancing in public now that I've disappeared," Seifer snickered. "She must still be pissed at me for the closet thing."

"Closet thing?"

"Yeah, I locked them in a closet together last week. They'd been making eyes at each other for months now and I finally got fed up with it. I'd rather them be dating and happy then put up with them staring at each other with puppy-love expressions whenever the other isn't looking. It's annoying," Seifer responded. "Of course, even though it worked, Fujin is still mad at me for doing it. So she's refusing to 'give me the satisfaction' of seeing the proof that I was right about them and they're being 'sneaky' in an obviously not sneaky-enough manner."

Squall snorted softly and shook his head. "Are they happy together?"

"Look at them. The way Fujin's looking at him is... kind of telling."

"You're right. She really cares about him... but why a closet?"

"It's traditional," Seifer responded with a laugh. "Forcing to people with UST... uh, that would be unresolved sexual tension, into a closet, or some other small, enclosed, lockable space, forces them to work things out, one way or another. They could have left things awkward, but typically one of them breaks down and kisses the other eventually. It's cliched, but effective.

"It was also a spur of the moment thing. The opportunity arose so I... shoved them into a closet together and hacked the controls so they couldn't open it from the inside. I just couldn't resist the temptation." He grinned impishly, remembering the sound of Fujin cussing up a storm from inside the closet.

"You try so hard to make everyone think you're an asshole, but you're actually a nice guy underneath it all, aren't you?" Squall asked, staring intently into Seifer's eyes.

It was a chilly night and really too windy to stay out on a balcony the way they were, but Seifer suddenly felt warm all over. He tugged absently at the collar of his uniform. "And you're not as disinterested in everyone else as you pretend to be either."

"More like I'm curious about you. We've been rivals in gunblade training for years, but I realized that I don't really know much about you and, for some reason, that bothers me."

"I'm surprised to find you two out here together," Trepe's voice interrupted their conversation.

Rolling his eyes, Seifer snapped, "yes, because being our instructor all year clearly made you an expert on our very thought processes."

Squall gave Seifer a sharp look and the blond reluctantly subsided. "Instructor Trepe," Squall greeted her tersely.

"Seifer, Squall." Quistis smiled at them oddly, something sad lingering around her eyes. Seifer thought for a moment and then recalled that this was the night Quistis lost her Instructor's license. He nearly winced; his comment had probably hurt her a lot more than he'd intended it to.

"Is there something you want, Instructor?" Squall asked when Quistis just stood there, watching them.

"So you'll stand out here chatting the night away with Seifer, but can't stand to spend any time around me?" Quistis crossed her arms over her chest, looking suitably insulted.

"Maybe I'm better company," Seifer grumbled sulkily, feeling rather insulted himself. Why shouldn't Squall enjoy his company?

Squall's blue eyes sparked with amusement as he glanced at Seifer before icing over as he turned to face Quistis. "You're an instructor and I've been your student. It's kind of awkward when you don't say anything."

"That's true," Quistis mused. "I was like that myself." Seifer rolled his eyes again. Quistis was popular, if quite aloof, when she was a student, ultimately very little like Squall. "Oh, I completely forgot. I wonder what's to become of me?" She laughed self-deprecatingly. "I've come to give you an order, Squall. Meet me at the entrance to the training center."

Eyebrows rising sharply, Seifer wondered just what Quistis thought she was doing. Squall had been ignoring her very obvious crush on him all year, but it looked like he was going to have to be more than subtle to make her buzz off now that he was no longer her student.

"Can't this wait until the morning?" Squall demanded, crossing his arms and scowling.

Quistis ducked her head and Seifer thought he saw her cheeks color faintly. "Just go get changed and meet me there," she argued. "This will be my last order." She spun sharply on her heel and marched off. Even at the dance, she moved like a proper SeeD.

"She can't actually order you to leave the party, you know," Seifer observed quietly. "This celebration is meant for us, after all."

"I know." Squall bit his lower lip and Seifer's eyes were drawn to the sight. He swallowed dryly. "This has to do with her crush on me, doesn't it?"

"Probably."

Squall's expression soured slightly. "I want her to stop trying to anticipate every thing I say or acting like I'm the one who ought to have an unrequited crush on her. The Fire Cavern test was annoying as hell because she kept commenting on how other guys froze up with her there or overdid things trying to impress her."

"I had instructor Jefferson oversee my test," Seifer mused. "Trepe has a tendency of comparing me unfavorably to you, though I certainly can be just as much of an ass to her." He paused and then said, "if you want her to back off then go meet her and then tell her to leave you alone from now on. She knows you aren't interested in her, but she wants to think that maybe there's a chance that if she could push past your walls then you'd open up to her unreservedly. If you want to make it clear that she doesn't have a chance, now's the time."

"Are you staying at the dance?"

"Nah, this seems like as good a time as any to escape. Good night, Squall."

"Good night..."


	3. Chapter 3

Disclaimer - I feel the strangest sense of deja vu. It's almost like I've disclaimed this chapter before...

A/N - Behold, another director's cut chapter. After much debate and even more tweaking, Kit and I have decided this chapter is ready to be re-posted. The conversations feel like they flow better now, though the chapter is still long on the backstory/exposition and short on actual plot development. Yet there's still something about this chapter that I really like. If nothing else, this remains a good Quistis-development chapter. Anywho, on to the show. ^_^

Note - Thanks to Berkie88 for pointing out the proper spelling of "anaphylactic" for us. ^_^

10/30/2012 - Re-edit.

_Chapter Three_

Seifer scowled at the brace on his leg. It was irritating and in the way... and his leg hurt every time he bumped into something. He couldn't wait until Dr. Kadowaki could finally fix it.

Just a few more hours...

The sound of sharp, stuttered breaths, the sort typically used to hide sobs without any actual success, caught Seifer's attention. Deciding to vent his irritation and inability to sleep on whoever the hapless person was (someone ditched by their date at the party, perhaps, or some unfortunate cadet), Seifer crept as silently as possible – made difficult by his crutches – around the corner.

Then he stopped in surprise.

Quistis Trepe was sitting alone on one of the benches in the entry hall. Tears were running slowly down her cheeks and her whip, Save the Queen, lay coiled uselessly at her feet. He'd last seen her some hours earlier when she'd ordered Squall to meet her at the training center. The two gunbladers had assumed that Trepe's order had something to do with her longstanding crush on the brunet, though Seifer secretly thought it had a little something to do with her losing her instructor's license as well. While Seifer wasn't too surprised that Squall's rejection had been terse enough to cause Quistis a few tears, he'd have thought she'd be recovered by now.

Fleetingly, Seifer remembered a younger Quistis making sandcastles on a beach. She'd been as bossy then as she was now. They'd shared a lot of their childhood and, despite much of their memories of that time being blocked by Guardian Forces, it had to mean something... right?

Hobbling over to her, Seifer seated himself beside her. He waited patiently, and silently, for her tears to subside.

"What... what do you want?" Quistis' voice was a little hoarse and brittle.

"Unless Squall was mysteriously killed by a T-Rexaur or declared his undying love for his gunblade and renamed her Sheila, I can't imagine why you're sitting here crying. But then, I've never seen you cry before, so I have no idea what it takes to merit this sort of reaction from you." Seifer paused and, when Quistis didn't respond, added, "you were fine when you were trying to flirt with Squall earlier."

"I wasn't trying to flirt with him," Quistis corrected automatically. "I... I don't know what I was trying to do."

"Squall is quiet, so a lot of people take his silence as obliviousness or agreement. The thing is, though, Squall is rarely agreeable and extremely observant," Seifer mused aloud. "He's known about your crush on him from the beginning. It was kind of obvious, though you did a halfway descent job of ignoring it. Lately, though... well, Squall was about to graduate and you started slipping. He didn't respond to your flirting because he was hoping you'd stop. Squall's always been the 'if I ignore it then it's not really there' sort of person."

"So I've learned," she responded desolately. "Only I didn't go away. I dragged him out to the secret area and told him all about how I lost my instructor's license. I was hoping that... maybe he'd listen and sympathize. I was hoping that..."

"He'd suddenly unfreeze for you?"

"He's certainly not acting frozen around you today," Quistis groused.

Seifer snorted in amusement. "You're jealous because he's suddenly on speaking terms with me?" Seifer snickered again. "He feels guilty 'cause I stopped some Galbadian soldier from skewering him and he didn't manage to do the same for me. It's not exactly the most rational reaction to what happened and once he figures out it wasn't his fault then he'll forget about the whole thing, forget that I'm not quite the person he always thought I was, and go back to ignoring me at every turn."

"What makes you so certain that's what will happen?"

"Guardian Forces make people forget. Without something to remind you of the past, eventually even you'll forget this night some day."

"That doesn't sound so bad," Quistis sighed.

"Yeah, but tell me, do you remember being eight or nine or ten? The earliest a person can start at Garden is the age of twelve and how much of your life before that age can you recall? I've got photo albums from my childhood, so I remember more than most, but even I've got more holes than memories of that time." Seifer gave her a long look. "We're kind of getting off topic here, though."

"I suppose." Quistis' eyes unfocused. "You're right, though. I can't remember being ten." Seeing the look on his face, she shrugged. "So what was the topic at hand again?"

"Squall's lack of social graces, including the knee-jerk reaction of saying 'there, there, it'll be alright' or whatever it was you were wishing he'd say upon learning of your lost license."

"You aren't very good at being sympathetic either."

"Meh, you don't want my sympathy. You want me to be more like Squall... or your idealized image of him, at any rate. It's annoying, really, to have my every habit critiqued as being 'not bad, but Squall did better.'"

"I wasn't that bad," Quistis objected.

Seifer raised an eyebrow, gave her a disbelieving look, and then continued speaking as though she hadn't commented. "And this brings us back to the fact that, really, you don't want Squall's sympathy either. You want some dream guy's sympathy and Squall just happens to be close enough to your ideal, in your mind, that he's the one you've been fixating on.

"Oh Hyne... this is what I get for leafing through Fuu's psychology texts. I do not like reading other people's subtext; it just leaves me irritated."

Quistis laughed. "Fujin has psychology books and you've actually read them?"

"Yeah, Fuu's got a bunch of psych books. She's applied for admission into an Estharian university. She wants to earn a doctorate in psychology." He ignored the jab Quistis had taken at his intelligence. He was getting in more than enough sharp pokes in on her flaws that he could take a few rejoinders. It wasn't like he'd completely understood what the books were talking about, anyway.

"So is this basically your long way of saying 'I could have told you so?'"

"Maybe a little." Seifer shrugged. "I already knew about you losing your license. One of the older teaches was gloating about how he knew you were too young for it. Personally, I always found his classes boring and was forever falling asleep in the back of his class; he never noticed since he was too into lecturing directly from the book in unfailing monotone."

"You never slept in my class," Quistis stated a little proudly.

"I was too busy making sure your stalkers didn't decide to kill me in my sleep. The Trepies are the single most frightening group in all of Garden and after the Paintball Fiasco, they hold no love for the DC," Seifer let himself ramble a little. "As the leader of the Disciplinary Committee, I was supposed to have a passing familiarity with the charters of all the clubs on campus. The Trepies are an official club and their guidelines are... very disturbing."

"How disturbing?"

"I was scarred for life," Seifer clarified unhelpfully.

"Just tell me that they don't take pictures of me in the shower."

"They don't," was Seifer's too-fast reply.

Quistis eyed him in suspicion. "You just lied to me, didn't you?"

"If I tell you the truth while within Garden's walls, there is a very good chance that they'll hunt me down and take my internal organs as their trophies. I'm rather fond of my internal organs. They keep me alive, you see." Of course, that was assuming Fujin didn't hunt them all down and kill them in horrific ways first. She was on particularly bad terms with the Trepies and was ever hopeful for an excuse to destroy them. Not that Quistis needed to know any of this.

Giggling, Quistis smiled at him, looking happy despite the puffy redness around her eyes. "Wow, you are capable of being nice."

"The beauty of it is that no one will believe you if you tell," Seifer responded with a smirk. Tapping his fingers lightly against his crutch, he steered the conversation back to the subject of Trepe's lost instructor's license. "You weren't the greatest instructor, Trepe. You had a tendency to assume that everyone knew most of the material already and grew frustrated when you had to re-explain things more than twice. But then, you should've been a student-teacher, or whatever, first. That's how teacher's learn to teach outside of Garden, anyway.

"It's late. Get some sleep; you won't feel any better about what's happened in the morning, but at least you won't be exhausted. If you need to take your frustration out on someone, then go after the Trepies for all the times they've invaded your privacy. Get their charter revoked; you might lose a few stalkers and feel healthier for it."

Quistis laughed again and then yawned. "Shouldn't you be getting some sleep too? You had a rough day."

"Rough morning, at any rate," Seifer corrected. "I slept a lot of the day away and now I'm not all that tired. My internal clock feels like it ought to be nine pm, not 3 am." Shrugging, he added, "Fujin is going to be randomly attacking me all day tomorrow to keep me from falling asleep."

"Goodnight, Seifer." Standing and stretching, Quistis headed towards the SeeD dorms. "Oh, and Seifer?"

"Hmm?"

"Thanks."

For a moment, Seifer was tempted to ask her about Orphanage. He didn't know if just asking would be enough to trigger her memories of that place, but in that moment he desperately wanted someone else to remember that they were his foster siblings. He wanted someone else around who could recall Edea fondly.

Contrary to popular belief – well, popular in the other future – Sorceresses did not necessarily have an intimate relationship with their Knights. A Knight needed only to care deeply for their Sorceress and have that feeling returned for the bond between them to work properly. A parent, child, or sibling could just as easily become Sorceress' Knight as a lover or friend. Yet, in the other timeline, the theory that Seifer had slept with Ultimecia while she still possessed Edea had remained prevalent in the tabloids. The rumors couldn't have been further from the truth, but the gossip and speculation had soured his memories of the Orphanage somehow.

Now the taint was gone, but he was all alone.

Still, the clicks of Quistis' shoes on the tiled floor faded away and the moment passed. "This is why I don't do introspective very often," Seifer grumbled to the empty entry hall.

* * *

They were gone. Squall, Zell, and Selphie had left for Timber... without saying goodbye.

Not that Seifer had expected them to, it was just...

He'd wanted to go with them, but it wasn't Garden policy to send someone out into the field until forty-eight hours had passed after recovering from an extensive healing. It was one of the few policies Seifer usually agreed with – forty-eight hours gave the healing magic plenty of time to dissipate from a person's system so that if they were injured and required more healing, the magic would work properly – but right now he hated the idea of Squall going off without him. Hadn't the whole point of changing his life been to fight at Squall's side instead of winding up fighting for Ultimecia?

Seifer felt like he was getting stuck on the sidelines. He wasn't useless; he ought to be out there.

"Something wrong, Seifer?"

Looking up, Seifer grinned at Raijin and Fujin while putting aside his worries. "Nah, I'm just bored, that's all. And, hey, no more crutches." He stood up and stepped around the bench to demonstrate his restored mobility.

Fuu smiled and jubilantly – for her, anyway – stuck a letter in his face. Snatching it and moving it away from his eyes enough to actually be able read it, Seifer began to read aloud. "Dear Miss Engel, we are happy to inform you that you have been accepted by the Estharian University at Esthar City. Additionally, you are eligible to apply for the following scholarships..." he trailed off and pulled the silver-haired girl into a hug. "Fuu, this is wonderful!" Pulling away, they both smiled brightly.

"What's wonderful?" Quistis asked, wandering over to them.

"Fujin's been accepted to one of the Estharian Universities. She's pretty amazing, ya know?" Raijin told her, puffing up with pride over Fujin's achievement.

"And she's eligible for an ungodly amount of scholarships," Seifer added, feeling every bit as proud of Fujin as Raijin did.

Fujin stood there with a faint blush on her cheeks. "Lucky," she muttered, looking down at the ground.

"Not luck," Raijin objected, wrapping his arms around her shoulders and giving her a peck on the forehead. "Intelligence, ya know?"

"Oh for crying out loud," Seifer mumbled. Louder he drawled, "you should probably take her on a real date before you give her any more kisses. And Fuu, stop trying to pretend the closet fiasco didn't change anything," he complained as his two friends turned bright red, sprang apart, and settled onto the bench on either side of where Seifer had been sitting when they'd shown up. "This is getting annoying. I locked you two in there for a reason and if you don't stop I will do it again."

"REVENGE!" Fujin growled.

"We're going bowling on tomorrow night." Raijin winced as Fujin reached over and smacked him. "What? He already knows we're dating, Fujin. You're just gonna have to find some other way to get him back for the tiny, dark closet, ya know?"

"Closet fiasco?" Quistis grinned, sitting down across the table from them. "That sounds interesting."

"Not really," Seifer took a long look at his friends and then grabbed Fujin's shoulders, pushing her over to sit by Raijin and then taking the place she'd been sitting before she could scoot back over. He smirked at her. "You're revenge plan A isn't very fair to Rai, Fuu," he told her gently and she sighed, leaning against her boyfriend in defeat.

"He locked us in a closet, ya know? How he managed it, I'm not really sure," Raijin admitted, looking a little confused. "I was walking down the hall, ya know? I just tripped and the next thing I knew I was in a closet with Fujin and the door was locked. Seifer doesn't usually fall back on clichés so I didn't consider he was responsible until Fuu said he was, ya know?"

"It was a spur of the moment thing," Seifer responded with a shrug. "The puppy-eyed stares you two were giving each other were starting to give me hives. I had to do something and, well... it seemed like a good idea at the time."

"We didn't need help," Fujin grumbled, still pouting. "We'd have gotten together on our own soon enough."

"Not before I wound up in anaphylactic shock," Seifer teased.

"Are you really allergic to puppy-eyed stares?" Raijin asked, sounding half serious.

Quistis laughed. "The three of you are the best entertainment I've had all day," she declared.

"You haven't been looking hard enough," Seifer told her. "So did you see off the trio to Timber this morning?"

Startled, Quistis nodded affirmatively. "How did you know they're going to Timber?"

"I'm the one who set up the meeting between their client and Kramer. Rinoa Heartily runs a resistance faction in there called the Forest Owls. They're nice people. Weird, but nice."

"Oh..."

Seifer let his attention wander around the cafeteria, wondering what would happen next. Obviously there would be no running off to Timber and becoming the Sorceress Knight again. The idea of helping Ultimecia conquer everything using his foreknowledge was kind of tempting, but somehow the idea of crushing Squall wasn't appealing this time around.

Maybe it never really had been appealing. Seifer wasn't sure anymore.

But Seifer had always wanted to be a hero and he knew now that siding with Ultimecia would make him enemy number one in practically every country on the planet. There was also the fact that, having spent most of the afternoon and evening with Squall the day before, Seifer felt a burning desire to get to know the reticent brunet better. Despite having known each other for years, Squall was good at making himself mysterious and only getting a taste of what lay beneath the surface of Squall's icy mask just wasn't enough.

"Looks like I really will only be in charge of the Disciplinary Committee for a few months after all," Fujin remarked morosely, breaking Seifer out of his thoughts.

Fujin's use of normal speech patterns twice in a row seemed to have stunned Quistis, but Seifer didn't pay her surprise any attention as he gave his sister his full concentration. "Have Mitchell follow you around like a second shadow for a while. He wants to be a detective, so heading up the DC would be good experience for him," Seifer recommended. "Unless you've rethought your assertion you'd rather take orders than follow them, Rai?"

Raijin shook his head violently. "Nah. I've been thinking of trying my luck at Fishermen's Horizon after the summer ends. I mean... you'll be off on missions all the time and Fuu'll be at college. I need to find something to do with myself, ya know? I just... don't think SeeD is for me."

Reluctantly, Seifer nodded in acceptance. He'd known that neither of his friends wanted to be SeeD for a while, but he'd held out hope that maybe Rai would at least give it a try. The realization that this was it, their last summer together before splitting off in different directions, jolted him painfully. "We'll always be a posse, though."

"AFFIRMATIVE!"

"What she said."

"The three of you are very close," Quistis observed wistfully. "That's difficult to manage in a school this competitive."

"We're all a lot alike, ya know?" Rai tried to explain. "We're orphans and we just... click together. It'd be weird if we weren't friends, ya know?"

"You're so eloquent," Seifer muttered, instinctively ducking Fuu's teasing swat.

"Don't you have friends you're close to?" Raijin asked Quistis.

"Well... there's Xu, but we're not like you three. We get along well so we hang out sometimes. We're friends, but not particularly close." Quistis shrugged as a sad expression appeared in her eyes even as she attempted to mask her unhappiness and loneliness.

Fujin reached out and clasped Quistis' hands in her own and Seifer recognized the look in Fuu's eyes. She'd just found herself a new project: helping Quistis. "LONELY!"

"A little, I suppose," Quistis reluctantly agreed.

"Do you really think Mitch can handle the DC?" Raijin cut in.

"He needs to learn to speak up for himself more, but he's got the talent for it." Seifer waved his hands absently. "I know he'll only be a sophomore next year, but I still think the upper years will listen to him. He had a lot of good ideas this year, so if he can just make himself be more assertive he'll do fine." Fujin nodded in agreement, not bothering to speak aloud.

"I never quite understood what the Disciplinary Committee was for," Quistis admitted sheepishly. "It seems like you're just doing the same thing the Shumi Guardians do."

"In a way we kind of do. But the Shumi won't investigate grievances. Unless they're given proof of what's going on, they'll only believe something is wrong if they've witnessed it themselves. Surely you remember that from your time as a cadet?" Seifer drawled.

"Well... yes."

"When we were freshmen, a group of us were being harassed by some upper years and we were getting sick of no one doing anything about it. The instructors told us to take it up with Shumi, the Shumi wouldn't do a damn thing about it, Security told us it wasn't their problem, and Kramer encouraged us to be more understanding of the other cadet's feelings and point of view." Seifer rolled his eyes. "Like singing hippie songs and trying to convince them to 'love thy neighbor' was gonna do us any good. So we decided to do something about it. It was difficult to convince the rest of the cadets to vote for the creation of the Disciplinary Committee, but we managed to get the majority vote we needed. Then we set the DC up as a cadet run detective force; we enforce the rules and actually investigate when someone comes to us with a complaint."

"We became more effective than Garden Security," Fujin asserted, giving Seifer a sideways look. "Six months ago Seifer almost got killed because he was doing his job so well."

"What?" Quistis sounded genuinely surprised and appalled.

"We're not supposed to..."

"You're not supposed to talk about it," Fujin corrected. "Raijin and I can say whatever we want. Squall, too, for that matter. Headmaster Kramer never forbade anyone but you to talk about what happened."

"Well, maybe I don't want you telling Trepe about it," Seifer snapped, forcing himself not to rub his shoulder reflexively.

"Seifer just doesn't like that it makes him sound like a hero, ya know?"

"It makes me sound like an idiot," Seifer muttered. If he hadn't been alone, with his guard down, he'd have never been shot. He'd been stupid and if Squall hadn't been there...

The other two members of the posse exchanged looks again and then Raijin asked Quistis, "do you remember a SeeD called James McCormick?"

"Raijin!" Seifer started to protest only to have Fujin slap a hand over his mouth. His muffled protest went ignored and, since Fuu had gloves on, the childish trick of licking her palm didn't do any good. He reached up to move her hand away, but she batted at his hands with her free hand while keeping her other one over his mouth as he struggled to get away.

Quistis snickered at the sight.

Raijin started talking again, however, and Quistis quickly grew somber again as she heard what Raijin had to say. "About a year ago there were a few girls – cadets and SeeDs – who were drugged and raped in town. They didn't know who was attacking them, but they knew it had to be someone in Garden since they'd wake up in their own rooms, ya know? When Security wouldn't do anything, they went to the DC and Seifer... he got obsessed, ya know? He nearly flunked a couple of his classes 'cause he kept skipping in order to investigate."

"I do remember you skipping out on a lot of my classes earlier this school year," Quistis observed quietly, finally understanding what had been going on with her student.

"Seifer managed to find out who the guy was: James McCormick. Problem was, the evidence was circumstantial so the Shumi didn't consider it real evidence, ya know? Security still wouldn't do anything; said we were little children playing at being detectives and we ought to go back to our video games, ya know? Anyway, Seifer tried to take what he'd learned to the headmaster but Kramer just gave him a pat on the head, promised he'd look into it, and then sent us off to study. It didn't really look like he was gonna do anything, ya know?

"So Seifer took everything to the Balamb PD. The girls were drugged in town, so the cops had jurisdiction, ya know? That was when McCormick tried to kill Seifer and McCormick wound up being sent to D-District in Galbadia, ya know? Everything was hushed up after that. Kramer didn't want what happened causing a scandal."

"If Leonhart hadn't followed you that night..." Fujin trailed off, shuddering as she pulled her hand away from his mouth. She didn't finish the thought, but she didn't have to. Seifer knew what she was thinking.

Seifer scowled at her anyway. He had no idea what the hell Fujin thought she was playing at, bringing this up now. "It wasn't that big a deal," Seifer grumbled. Though, now that he thought about it, he distinctly remembered killing McCormick just before interrogating Squall at D-District during the other go-around. The bastard's death had been so very satisfying...

"Not a big deal... you..." Quistis trailed off, shaking her head ruefully. "The more I learn about you the more I realize I've never understood you at all."

"We've been practically strangers for years, Trepe," Seifer responded with a shrug. "It shouldn't be surprising that we know basically nothing about each other. I prefer it that way." Seifer noticed Fujin's wince and nearly did the same when Raijin rolled his eyes. "What is with you two?" he demanded.

"NOTHING!" Fuu started to stand as she pointedly raised her arm to stare at her watch. "LATE!"

Raijin hopped to his feet as well. "I should go... I have... ya know... stuff?"

Reaching around Fujin, Seifer grabbed Raijin's arm and pulled him back down to the bench while giving Fujin a pointed look. "What is with you two today?" he repeated. "You're both terrible liars, by the way."

"Fuu already has her other revenge plan in the works... plan B, ya know?" Raijin confessed. "Oww!" he yelped as the silver haired girl sat back down regally and planted her elbow in her boyfriend's ribs.

"It isn't exactly revenge," Fujin finally said. "You're just... alone a lot now. We're together and we're going to be leaving..."

"We just want you to be happy too, ya know? Since you can't stand Rinoa anymore..."

"HALLELUJAH!"

"Fuu!" This time Raijin was the one glowering at her for interrupting. "So we're just..."

"Trying to set me up with Trepe?" Seifer sounded bewildered.

"Not really," Fujin shrugged. "I considered her, but she's not your type. She is good at unintentionally helping find out things about people, however. I was hoping to... steer the conversation towards someone else and see how things progressed." She shrugged. "Plan A failed. Time for plan B."

Quistis snickered and leaned forward, giving Fujin a conspiratorial grin. "Whatever plan B is, count me in. I'd love an excuse to wind someone up today."

"Seifer's fun to irritate," Fujin agreed impishly.

"Plan B?" Seifer scooted to the edge of the bench, glancing around to make sure he'd have a clean getaway. He had a bad feeling about this...

"Well, in novels there's often a love-hate thing," Fujin began to explain.

"Fujin," Seifer spoke warningly, "I really don't want to know how you've managed to lose your mind, okay? I especially don't want to know about the plots to those raunchy romance novels you're always leaving around our dorm room."

"You two shared a dorm?" Quistis was shocked again. She was shocked way too easily in Seifer's opinion.

"The management was sufficiently assured that the two of us would never have anything more than a platonic relationship," Seifer explained absently. Narrowing his eyes at Fujin, he asked, "how badly am I going to hate this plan B of yours?"

"I'm leaving!" Raijin jumped up and scurried away before either his best friend or girlfriend could stop him.

"COWARD!" Fujin yelled at the rapidly departing staff-fighter.

"That bad, huh?" Seifer closed his eyes, massaging the bridge of his nose to ward off the oncoming headache. He'd wanted to be out there with Squall and the others earlier because he hadn't wanted to feel useless. Now he wanted to be out there to save his sanity from Fujin's plotting.

"Are you thinking of setting him up with Xu?" Quistis asked. "There's definitely an... affectionate hatred between the two of you and she's a brunette." The blonde woman smirked. "Brunettes are more your type, I think."

"You're getting a sadistic sort of pleasure from this, aren't you?" Seifer accused.

"Maybe..."

"No, I wasn't thinking of setting him up with Xu." Fujin's expression as she nixed the idea grew evil, but Seifer didn't notice as he said 'thank Hyne' with great relief. "What do I read besides raunchy romance novels?" Fujin teased slyly.

All the color drained from Seifer's face. "I really hate you sometimes, Fuu." Pushing away from the table, Seifer tried to get the hell away from the table before he could hear anything further. Unfortunately, he wasn't fast enough.

"I like yaoi manga," Fujin explained. "My backup plan, as Seifer has just realized, is to set him up with Squall Leonhart."

Seifer blushed at hearing that... and then cursed internally. One thing about Fujin was that she never expected her first plan to work. In fact, plan B was the one she always expected to succeed. That meant she'd never really intended to hide her relationship with Raijin... just make Seifer think she was so that she could blindside him with this ridiculous plot.

That silver haired, red eyed, psychotic albino was clearly delusional. There was simply no way...

_Dammit..._

_Sure, I was distressed over missing him before he left for Timber and I've noticed on occasion – many occasions – that he's really hot... especially after a good spar when he's a little short of breath and his hair is plastered to his forehead... and his eyes get that look..._

_No! No, no, no... Hyne dammit, she's screwing with my mind. That's all. _

_I've never been attracted to men... never felt the urge to date a guy... wanting to spend time with Squall – a lot of time with Squall – to get to know him and assuage my curiosity about him does not mean..._

_Even if I did harbor an attraction to him... he's supposed to wind up with Rinoa._

_Why does that hurt?_

Seifer only just barely managed to avoid walking into the door frame as he left the cafeteria. His thoughts kept churning in circles for quite some time, though, and he avoided Fujin, Quistis, and Raijin for the rest of the day.

* * *

Two days later, Seifer found himself sitting on a train bound for Galbadia Garden with Quistis. In his hands was the file containing the orders to assassinate the Sorceress.

Even knowing that the assassination attempt would fail, Seifer felt like a traitor for carrying the file.

"Looking forward to seeing Squall again?" Quistis teased, jerking Seifer out of his thoughts.

"Not as much as you are, I'm sure," Seifer shot back.

"So there isn't any basis for Fujin's grand plan for you and Squall...?"

"The closet thing was just the latest of my attempts to make those two stop with the puppy-eyes," Seifer responded dismissively. "Fujin's getting creative in her revenge; that's all. She's going to torment me with stranger and crazier plots until she get's bored and moves on to something else. This isn't the first time she's gone a little weird in her plans for vengeance. Admittedly, this is the first time she's threatened to try and set me up with Squall, but..." he shrugged. "I guess there really is a first time for everything."

"You and Squall were awfully comfortable out there on that balcony, alone together the night of the party," Quistis observed quietly, growing serious. "The two of you were both equally pissed off by my showing up and ordering Squall to leave."

"Well, you were being kind of rude," Seifer hedged, not really wanting to think too hard on the lightheaded way he'd felt around Squall that evening.

"I suppose I was," Quistis relented, backing off the subject. "So what else did you do to your posse?"

"I shouldn't say."

"Oh come on..." Quistis batted her eyes winningly at him and Seifer rolled his in response.

He could understand why the Trepies were so infatuated with Quistis – she was smart, beautiful, and deadly, after all – but ultimately she really wasn't his type. Truthfully, Rinoa wasn't his type either, but she was close enough that he'd thought she was until they'd started dating. Like Quistis had insinuated the other day, brunettes were Seifer's type. Brunettes as in pretty, female brunettes and not handsome, male brunets who looked dead sexy in leather pants and fur-lined bomber jackets.

Denial was certainly a lovely place to vacation this time of year.

Seifer shook his head and gathered his thoughts. "No. It's bad enough Fujin is using you to vicariously wreak her revenge upon me. I refuse to further incite her wrath by further explaining what I did to her and Raijin... no matter how hilarious the events may have been at the time."

"She's not even here!"

"And that's how much she scares me," Seifer responded fatalistically. "In fact, your stalkers fear her, too.

"Yeah... when the Trepies were bugging the public showers to get pictures of you, Fuu very nearly throttled their ring leader in order to get a little privacy back. She won't go within fifteen feet of Fuu if she can help it anymore."

"_She?_"

"Yep. Most of the Trepies are females. I thought you knew..."

"No... I knew that some were women, but I... I just didn't pay much attention to them."

"Well, they are the focus of many a fantasy for just about every guy in Garden." Grinning mischievously, Seifer blocked her angry attempt to hit him on the head. "I'm just stating the truth, Trepe. No need to be so violent. Besides, I never said you were part of those fantasies... though I'm sure most made the inclusion."

"But never yours?" she sounded more curious than insulted now.

"Trepe, I am a gentleman aspiring to the chivalrous code passed down by the knights of old..." seeing her disbelieving stare, he laughed. "To be honest, I never really considered you or any of your little stalkers. Crazy people with no regard for other people's personal boundaries bother me and you just aren't my type. You're attractive, but you just..."

"Don't do it for you?" She flushed slightly, but seemed a little relieved. "I suppose it's a good thing you aren't my type either, or I'd be a little offended."

"Why are you asking all this, anyway? Because Fujin wanted to use you to ferret info out of me in her 'mess with Seifer' plot?"

"Partly." She sounded completely unrepentant. "The rest is because I don't really know how other people view me and it bothers me a little."

"Bossy," Seifer declared.

"Excuse me?"

"You've always been bossy."

"What?"

"That's how I've always viewed you. You're bossy... and now you're a little nosy, but I'm blaming that on Fuu."

"Ugh, well, you've always been a jackass."

"Language, Trepe. If your stalkers could hear you now, they'd be so disappointed... or incredibly turned on."

"Seifer!" Quistis flushed again. "How can you be so flippant in the face of other people's critiques?"

The train whistled, signaling their arrival at the station. There was a small Galbadian town near the Garden and they'd be able to start out on the ten minute drive to Galbadia Garden as soon as they disembarked.

"I don't care what most people think about me, Trepe. It's not so much me being flippant as... indifference, I suppose. In the long run, you only see certain parts of who I am. You're not so bad when you aren't being bossy, so I don't mind you seeing more of who I am now than you did before. But in the end, I don't show you everything that makes me Seifer Almasy and that limits the accuracy of your critiques of my personality. Your opinions aren't fact and where you see a jackass, someone else sees the mask I hide more important traits behind."

Quistis nodded slowly. "Squall's opinion matters to you, though. You wouldn't mind him seeing everything that you are. Don't try to deny it Seifer; it's been obvious to me since the first day of class."

Seifer stiffened, his mind retracing its steps back to Fuu's so-called matchmaking plans. He wanted to know everything there was to know about Squall... but did he want Squall to know everything about him in return?

He was starting to think that maybe he did.

"Let's go," Seifer changed the subject. "We've got orders to deliver."

* * *

Quistis wound up delivering the orders without Seifer. Headmaster Martine typically only allowed Captains and higher into his office, barring special circumstances of course. Everyone else had to wait outside. Being an impatient person by nature, Seifer told her that he'd meet up with her later and then went exploring.

He'd found his way to Galbadia Garden's quad – it had been fairly easy to locate even without checking the map – and had settled down cross-legged on one of the benches. Raising his glove covered hand into the air, he eyed it with an appraising stare.

The red sword cross on his gloves and jacket had always been symbolic of the path he'd wanted in life. Knights of Old Centra were said to have worn symbols like his when they'd battled for the safety of their sorceresses. The sword stood for valor, the cross for death and rebirth, and red for blood freely sacrificed in battle.

Dropping his hand to his side, Seifer considered, for one final time, seeking out Ultimecia to be her Knight. This time he looked critically upon his actions in the other timeline, which he could no longer pretend had been a mere dream. None of his actions seemed particularly gallant or heroic in hindsight. In fact, some of it seemed like slaughter. He didn't regret the past, but he found himself wondering how much had really been his choice. He'd lost his dream of becoming a SeeD, was confronted by a sorceress possessing the closest person he had to a mother, was fed lies about Squall's... about Garden's motivations for stopping Edea's rise to power...

There was no denying just how badly he'd been manipulated.

As much as Seifer hated to, he admitted to himself that every time he'd doubted or wanted out, Ultimecia would say or do something that would change his mind. His very thoughts during that time were suspect – Seifer had no way of knowing whether she'd used magic to maintain his loyalty, but it was a good bet that she had.

On some level, Seifer felt like he'd known the truth all along. How else could he explain having the strength and skill to destroy, not simply defeat, the Guardian Force Odin, yet be beaten time and again by Squall and the others? Deep down, Seifer had wanted them to win and Ultimecia to be killed.

The acceptance he felt over what happened didn't stop the realization from rankling him. Seifer had always felt the need to assert his individuality. At orphanage, as the others were adopted one-by-one, he'd acted out more and more in hopes that someone would want him and adopt him. Eventually the behavior became part of his personality and developed into the brash front he used to hide the things he didn't want others to see about him.

Six years ago, upon meeting Fuu for the first time, the silver-haired girl had immediately understood Seifer. Her ability to see him when no one else could probably should have worried Seifer, but he'd been relieved to find someone who wasn't always trying to change him that he'd wound up loving her instead. It was a platonic sort of love and Fujin felt the same way about him; it wasn't long after that they hacked into Garden records and 'officially' made themselves siblings.

Fujin's understanding of Seifer had only improved over the years and that was why she'd given him the gloves. The emblems on the gloves allowed Seifer to continue to express his independence even when he conformed in other ways. Even as a SeeD, he'd still be Seifer Almasy first and foremost.

"Seifer?"

Looking up in surprise at Squall – who also looked surprised, but also a little tired too – Seifer smiled. "Hey, Squall. How went the mission?"

"Nn..." Squall's nose wrinkled almost imperceptibly. "Not so well," he admitted, hurrying over to sit beside Seifer, who immediately made room on the bench for the brunet. Zell and Selphie followed Squall over while Rinoa tagged along more reluctantly, though she beamed at Seifer as though he'd shown up just for her benefit.

"What happened?"

Taking turns and sounding something like twins, Selphie and Zell poured out the whole story surrounding the train job and their subsequent flight from Timber when their second attempt to capture President Deling fizzled without ever getting to start.

Narrowing his eyes, Seifer tilted his head and regarded Rinoa carefully. She fidgeted uncomfortably under his gaze. "Rinoa, did you run your intel past Squall?"

"No. There was no need to. The information was confirmed by multiple sources," Rinoa snapped, her tone objecting to his question.

"And all those sources turned out to be wrong," Seifer shot back. "SeeD aren't just fighters, Rinoa. We're trained in strategy, counter-intelligence, and anything else that might help us complete any type of mission you could possibly think of... including running peace talks. What use is hiring SeeD if you aren't going to utilize the abilities we possess that are relevant to the mission? Just because someone is only there on a contract is no excuse not to let them know on what grounds they're risking their lives for. Maybe it wouldn't have made a difference, but having someone actually trained for this sort of work verify the information instead of leaving it up to people who believe Bigfoot is going to solve all their problems is part of the reason why I recommended your group hire SeeD in the first place."

Rinoa glowered at him and clenched her hands into fists. "They don't all believe in Bigfoot!"

"Looks like Squall isn't the only one who can piss her off in under a minute," Zell muttered to Selphie.

"Watts spends three months each year searching for Bigfoot in the forests of Timber. Zone has an ulcer that, for reasons unknown, he refuses to seek treatment over. Reg, Cassia, and Jenner play _Dungeons and Dragons_ using figurines that all looking like variations on President Deling and compete to see whose character dies the fastest. You are the sole driving force behind the Forest Owls, Rinoa, and you can't carry everyone on your own. Why didn't you at least try to trust the SeeDs you hired and attempt a little delegation to put things in order?"

"You're mercenaries!" Rinoa burst out. "None of you have any reason to care about Timber's well being!"

"So you're saying that since we're not from Timber, we have no real stake in liberating it?" Seifer wondered if she was really going to fall neatly into the verbal trap he'd just laid out for her.

"Exactly!"

"You're a spoiled, hypocritical little brat, Rinoa. You're a Galbadian, not a Timber native. As easily as you can accuse us of not giving a damn about anything other than being paid to fight, I can accuse you of not caring about anything other than rebelling against your father, General Caraway." His voice remained even and he smirked a little as he spoke.

"How dare you!" Rinoa moved to slap him, but Seifer caught her wrist before she could connect.

Gripping her wrist tightly, but not too painfully, Seifer told her, "I'm making a point. Balamb Garden has standards. When we take jobs it has to be with people whose ideals we can agree with and whose causes we feel are worth fighting for. We mercenaries have to be able to live with ourselves after we finish a job." He released Rinoa's wrist, which dropped limply to her side. "Think before you speak, Rinoa. You should know these things about us already."

"Seifer's right," Squall spoke up. "Rinoa, we may not be from Timber, but our mission is to help you liberate that country from Galbadia. We give our missions our all not just because we're SeeD, but because we don't have it within ourselves to give any less. That you'd think otherwise is insulting."

The clicks of Quistis' shoes on the ground alerted the five teens to the blonde woman's arrival. "Headmaster Martine wants to see all of us in front of Garden asap," she told them. Looking from Squall to Selphie and Zell, she added, "I'm glad to see you're okay." Eying Rinoa critically, she reached out to politely shake the civilian's hand. "You must be Rinoa. Fujin was regaling me with stories about you after your appearance at the Graduation Party at Balamb."

Rinoa knew exactly how much Fujin disliked her and paled a little. "Oh? She never seemed to be one to talk much."

"Mmm... no, she isn't," Quistis agreed. "She quite selective in who she'll exchange more than a few words with. I've been acquainted with her for years now, but it was only about two days ago that she deemed me worthy of actually conversing with."

"Ah..." Rinoa tried to think of something to say, but she seemed to be at a complete loss.

Smirking, Seifer stood and thoughtlessly offered Squall a hand up. "Let's get a move on, then, shall we?"

Accepting Seifer's hand, Squall let his fellow gunblade specialist pull him to his feet. "Let's go," he agreed, oblivious to the almost electric jolt of heat that flowed through Seifer even as their hands released.


	4. Chapter 4

Disclaimer - If one of us owned _FF8_, you'd have all heard the squeals of fan-girlish joy by now... and it would be getting updated for a new platform the way_ The Legend of Zelda:The Ocarina of Time_ has been for the 3DS. (It looks so pretty...)

A/N – First, we'd like to give a big thanks to MeaninglessProse, who pointed out that Seifer and Squall passed by Zell and Quisty twice in their walk to the train. We missed that even while going through and rewriting the chapter; we were halfway through revamping four when the review came in and when I checked... it was a head-desk moment. ^_^;

Second, we changed something big in this chapter. In earlier versions of the story, we considered moving out the part where Squall remembered the orphanage, but we actually left that part alone. It's semi-important later that Squall knows about orphanage before the others remember. What we did change, however, should be really obvious once you get to it. It's gonna require some reworking of chapters 5 and 6, but it's definitely going to be well worth it. It's something neither of us ever really liked in the game or in our story, but left largely alone because there was so much else to focus on in this story and we always intended to come back and do a second draft of the story anyway.

Third, if you're looking for a good Seifer/Squall game rewrite to read, go take a look at Shivani's "Snafu". It's really well written (which seems to be par for the course for Shivani's work; I've only read a some of Shivani's stories but I've liked every one that I have read) and does a great job of jabbing the game's flaws with sticks for fun.

_Chapter 4_

Rinoa was a little slow at hitting the salutes and such, but all in all she didn't do a half bad imitation of a SeeD. Fortunately, Headmaster Martine gave all his attention to Squall and not the rest of the group. Otherwise their ruse to pretend Rinoa was one of them would have failed spectacularly.

However, Rinoa's civilian status wasn't the only thing Martine failed to notice. Though he asked them to appoint a leader for themselves, it was pretty clear that Squall was the one Martine had already chosen to take charge of the situation. Never mind that he was outranked by Quistis and it was clear that Trepe was displeased to have been passed over for command, Martine intended to have the SeeD of his choice in charge and the rest thinking that they'd thought of it themselves.

Martine's 'my way or the highway' attitude rubbed Seifer the wrong way, but he didn't say anything. He knew he had a tendency of being that way himself and it wasn't like he disagreed with putting Squall in charge. Though Seifer had to admit, to himself at least, that part of his agreement with having Squall in charge had to do with the fact that Quistis didn't quite have her head on straight yet after the revocation of her instructor's license. (Having met Martine once before, Seifer had no illusions as to why he hadn't even been in the running for team leader. The meeting in question didn't end well and Seifer had only escaped expulsion by the narrowest of margins.)

However, Quistis recognized that there was no point in arguing Squall's appointment and she easily closed ranks with the others in favor of figuring out how to deal with the newcomer, Irvine Kinneas. The cowboy-inspired sharpshooter was leering appreciatively at the ladies and, at first glance, didn't seem like he'd be much of a problem so long as he didn't get his lights knocked out from saying the wrong thing to any of the three girls in their group.

It was when Kinneas tipped his hat in greeting that Seifer recalled a much younger Kinneas doing the exact same damn thing and the blonde was forced to reevaluate Irvine. The auburn haired man was from orphanage and he'd been obsessed with Selphie in a harmless, childish manner. Taking a harder look at Irvine, Seifer had to wonder how much of Irvine's current attitude was a knee-jerk reaction to having been forgotten by people he still remembered. Having reacted poorly to the way the others forgot himself, Seifer knew that their visible lack of remembrance had to be painful for the other teen.

"Have we met before?" The words slipped out before Seifer could consider the pros and cons of letting Irvine know he wasn't the only one who remembered orphanage. Galbadia Garden used tech instead of GFs, so Seifer wasn't worried about being wrong where Irvine's memories of orphanage were concerned. Despite having known one another as children, Kinneas was virtually a stranger now.

Nearly ten years apart tended to do that to people, after all.

But Irvine grinned the same way he had as a child, relief evident in his eyes. "Well, yeah. You were at the orphanage Matron Kramer ran in Centra, right? It's been a long time, so I'm kinda fuzzy on your name, but..." he trailed off with a friendly shrug. His voice had changed over the years, but the drawling tone was the same.

"Seifer Almasy," he replied, pleased despite his reservations. "You always had this ridiculous cowboy fixation," he teased, "but you also swore you'd be the best sharpshooter on the planet."

"And I am. I guess this is my chance to prove it, huh?"

"If you can." Seifer smirked and Irvine laughed, not even close to offended.

"You're still such a brat. This'll be fun."

Squall looked distinctly uncomfortable as he glanced between the duo. "We should head for the train station and get the mission underway." He edged a little closer to Seifer as he spoke, subtly trying to get away from Rinoa, who'd chosen to stand next to the anti-social gunblade specialist.

"That's right. As it is, if we leave now we'll get to the capital city by nightfall," Irvine agreed. "The yearly festival is tomorrow evening, so you'll all need to get a feel for the city's layout as quickly as possible. Have any of you been there before?"

"It's my home town," Rinoa answered tentatively. "Though... it's been about a year since I was last there."

"I've visited a few times," Seifer added. "It's not the most memorable place I've ever been."

"The fun gets sucked out a little more each year," Irvine agreed. "That's just one of the hazards of living in a country run by a totalitarian government. Anyway, there's a hotel not far from General Caraway's house that will be convenient to use since he's our contact."

Rinoa squeaked a little at the mention of her father, but subsided into silence when everyone except Irvine and Quistis glanced over at her.

Sweeping his hat off his head and bowing low before Selphie and Rinoa, Irvine brushed tip of his hat on the ground before straightening up and replacing the hat. "Ladies, shall we?"

"Squall, Seifer, isn't one of you going to say something?" Rinoa demanded, glancing from the cowboy to the two gunbladers.

Squall shrugged disinterestedly. "No, why?"

"Have fun," Seifer offered, brushing her off.

Huffing in irritation, Rinoa hooked onto Irvine's proffered arm while Selphie feigned indignation on Rinoa's behalf as an excuse to latch onto Irvine's other arm. "Come on, Irvine, Selphie... let's beat the rest to the train. We'll have such fun together." The trio sauntered off, laughing.

Quistis looked thoughtfully at the remaining three men and then grabbed Zell's arm. "Let's take their challenge and beat them to the train." Then she proceeded to drag the bewildered Zell from the Garden entrance.

Seifer really hoped that Quistis wasn't trying to help further Fujin's revenge plot by leaving him behind with Squall. It was getting pretty obvious she honestly believed Seifer had feelings for Squall and... Seifer wasn't entirely certain she was wrong. But Squall was destined to wind up with Rinoa, so there wasn't any point in those two playing matchmaker. Though Seifer wasn't even sure why Quistis was going along with this; after all, she couldn't be over Squall yet and surely the idea of him being with someone else had to hurt.

Brushing off his musing, Seifer observed, "they're just... leaving us here. Do you think they'd call it cheating if we borrowed a couple of segues or a car?"

Squall snickered. "Yes, it would be cheating."

"It'd serve them right, just walking off on us like that," Seifer whined, easily following Squall as they set off towards the town in he distance at a fairly fast pace. The other two groups weren't far ahead of them, though they'd each already managed a fair bit of distance.

Zell had already freed his arm from Quistis and they were conversing happily, probably chatting about Galbadian history or something equally boring. Seifer didn't know his fellow blondes very well, but he did know that Zell was something of a history buff and that Quistis, of course, knew all sorts of useless, random trivia.

The group furthest ahead – Rinoa, Irvine, and Selphie – had also drifted apart a little. Irvine was still 'escorting' Selphie, but Rinoa had dropped away and she looked a little despondent... or bored. It was hard to tell which, really. She kept shooting looks back at Quistis and Zell, as though she'd rather be talking with them than stuck as the third wheel of what might be the first signs of an oncoming relationship between Irvine and Selphie.

At least, Seifer hoped it would work out for those two. He'd hate to have to kill the cowboy for breaking Selphie's heart and it was pretty obvious she had feelings for the guy.

"So, we're going to destroy a Sorceress," Seifer said, watching in amusement as Quistis and Zell were waylaid by a group of small, vicious monsters that looked like a cross between giant playing cards and birds; Seifer didn't recognize the species, but they were shooting ice blasts from their beaks. The bird half resembled a monster species common in Timber, though, so Seifer was fairly confident that the two species were related somehow.

"Looks like," Squall agreed, carrying on their conversation.

"Too bad she probably wants to conquer the world," Seifer continued. "If she weren't the megalomaniac type, she could do a lot of good for the world."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, in the past there were Sorceresses who had the ability to rejuvenate the land. They have access to a lot of powers barred to Guardian users like us or Blue Witches like Trepe. If a Sorceress were to use her powers on Centra, which is still mostly a rocky desert, then it would eventually become a habitable continent again."

Squall was silent for a long moment, his eyes distant. "I was at that orphanage at Centra, too, wasn't I?" Squall turned to Seifer and pinned him with a searching look.

"Yeah." Breathing became a little difficult under that intense, cerulean stare. "Yeah, you were."

"It must have been in the part of Centra that's recovered some," Squall mused, looking away. "I remember there being a small forested area and huge fields of wildflowers growing not too far from the beach..."

Seifer smiled wistfully, recalling the past with what he knew to be greater clarity than Squall. "We used to play in that field with wooden practice swords. No one else ever wanted to mess with us when we were sparring 'cause they thought swords were outdated compared to guns."

"Well, the melee classes at Garden certainly taught them otherwise." Squall's eyes seemed to grow brighter as they talked. "At least... assuming they wound up at Garden like we did."

Shrugging, Seifer decided against saying anything about how everyone from the orphanage had wound up at one Garden or another. "I don't suppose you remember how we once got in trouble for trying to create our own fireworks show?"

"Sort of." Squall's eyes grew amused. "I remember we were on the beach, so it wasn't like we would have set fire to anything..." He paused and then mused, "I wasn't going to come at first, but you dragged me down to the beach and you were right about it being fun. We all thought Matron was unfair not to let us finish. But... I don't remember what she looked like or who the other children were. Obviously one of them was Irvine... I just, don't remember."

Seifer focused on the past and tried to remember. He knew a lot of things about the past, but it was in an abstract sort of way that was more like memorized facts than actual memories. He knew what Matron Edea Kramer looked like now, for example, but he couldn't recall anything about how she'd appeared in the past. He knew how she looked because of the photos he had of his days at the orphanage, but he couldn't recall how she must have seemed so much taller then or whether she'd ever baked cookies for them or even if she'd ever taken care of him when he got sick. He knew these things must have happened, but memories themselves seemed to slip through his fingers when he tried to think of them. "Matron... is pretty much the only mother I've ever had, but I don't really remember much about her besides her voice. I think she's visited me a few times since we've come to Garden, but... it's all kind of fuzzy. Mostly I remember her voice... she always sounded so pleasant and I hated disappointing her because she never sounded angry, just sad. She didn't like it when I'd pick fights with the others."

"You couldn't play nice even then." Squall's voice had a lilting quality to it all of a sudden, as though he was poking fun at Seifer. It was like an entirely different facet of Squall was coming out to play; Seifer couldn't help but be fascinated.

"That would require being tactful when being blunt is so much more fun." By then, they were walking past Quistis and Zell. Taking a moment to further scrutinize the monsters bothering the duo, Seifer nodded to himself and yelled, "they aren't fireproof, guys! Go pyro on their asses, for crying out loud!" Then, giving them a jaunty wave to which he received two indignant glares, he shrugged at Squall. "If they'd been paying attention to the fact that their physical attacks weren't doing any good, they would be done by now."

Squall's lips quirked in amusement for a moment before he frowned in confusion. "I've been talking to you a lot," he observed quietly, changing the subject.

"Huh? Well that came out of nowhere."

"I don't usually like sharing my thoughts with anyone, yet here I am talking to you about the past or whatever else comes to mind..." he trailed off, lost. "I don't know why."

"You said before that you were curious about me," Seifer mused with a grin. "And thus, being curious, part of you has realized you'll need to have a conversation consisting of more than the word 'whatever' and a few well placed shrugs."

"Am I really that bad?"

"Trepe has been imitating you almost flawlessly. What does that tell you, Squall?"

"It's bad."

"Yeah." Seifer laughed. "You know, I used to imagine what it would be like to be a Sorceress' Knight."

"Isn't that what we'd play at?" Squall's eyes glazed over for a moment as he remembered. "Being rival Knights with wooden swords?"

"I think you're right." Seifer shoved his hands in his pockets, aware that Quistis and Zell were right on the edge of catching up to them, having finally beaten the monsters. "It wasn't just that, though. I'd search for books about Sorceresses and everything. I, uh, based this," he gestured to the sword cross on his sleeve, "on the symbols the Knights would use to identify themselves."

"Really? That's actually pretty interesting. I chose this," he tugged on the Griever pendant he wore, "because most books depict the Guardian Force Griever as a lion-like creature. I thought it looked cool." He shrugged and let his hand fall away. "Then I found out that no one really knows what Griever really looks like. All the pictures are based on a handful of records left over from Ancient Centra. Griever might not even exist anymore."

"I always figured it was because everyone used to mispronounce your name as 'lion heart' instead of 'Leon heart,'" Seifer admitted.

"It certainly doesn't encourage people to pronounce my name properly," Squall agreed, the lilting quality returning to his voice. "People tend to glance at the pendant when I correct them."

Seifer could just imaging the idiotic expression they'd get upon correction. "'But it's a lion,'" Seifer mocked in a falsetto tone.

"The corners of Squall's mouth twitched. "That's why I don't like talking to most people. They're idiots."

"Then does the fact that you talk to me mean you don't think I'm an idiot?" Seifer hadn't actually meant to ask, but it shot out of his mouth before he could think it over. He'd never cared what people thought of him before, but this was Squall. Squall was different than everyone else. Squall was important... special.

"At the very least, you're smarter than the average moron," Squall's voice was definitely teasing tone.

"Gee, thanks. I'm so flattered," Seifer drawled, letting sarcasm color his voice and cover the strange sort of 'almost panic' he'd felt after asking the question. "I guess it's a good thing I think you're intelligent enough, since you're in charge of the mission." A comfortable silence settled over them.

Taking a moment to look over his shoulder, Seifer saw that Quistis and Zell had fallen back a great deal and were having a very animated conversation. Whatever it was about, the tattooed blonde seemed rather distressed about it; his movement grew increasingly sharp and his face had furrowed into a frown. Quistis, however, had a sort of resigned expression.

"Uh... Seifer?"

"Yeah?" Returning his attention to his companion, Seifer took note of the way Squall had shoved his hands into his pockets. Unlike most people, who gestured more when they were nervous, Squall tended to put his hands in his pockets or press them against a table or flat surface. He crossed his arms when he was angry or annoyed, but let his hands free on the rare occasion that he was truly excited about something.

Seifer very nearly stumbled as he realized just how much time he must have spent watching Squall to have picked up on those sort of nuances. It was no wonder Fujin had made the assumption that he had feelings for Squall; he was a complete idiot not to have realized sooner...

"Is something wrong?" Seifer prompted as he realized Squall had also drifted of into thoughts.

"If... something happens to me during the mission, I want you to take over."

"W-what? Squall, you'll be..."

"There are no guarantees that the mission will go smoothly. In fact, the opposite is more likely."

"Murphy's Law: anything that can go wrong will go wrong," Seifer misquoted. It was close enough and certainly applicable.

"Exactly." Squall paused and then tilted his head thoughtfully. "Quistis isn't going to like this when I tell the others later. She outranks the both of us, yet I'm in charge... and I'm putting you ahead of her as second in command."

"She'll just have to deal with it," Seifer blew off his concerns. "Though... why are you picking me over her? Not that I'm complaining or anything, but she does have field experience whereas this is my first mission as a graduated SeeD."

"But not your first mission overall," Squall stated. "I know everyone will listen to you; you can bully people in line when they aren't listening or simply being stupid... and you know when to stick to the plan and when to throw out the plan.

"Besides, you led the Disciplinary Committee since its founding and kept Zell from freaking out during the Dollet mission. I... trust you'll be able to take care of things in my place."

Seifer blushed, unable to stop his reaction. He cursed mentally as he felt his cheeks heat up and little flutters stirred in his chest. Hyne... if Squall only knew what his words did to Seifer...

Fortunately the silence that fell around them wasn't awkward. At least, Squall didn't seem to notice the sudden, pink tinge that had to be staining Seifer's cheeks.

Ahead of them Rinoa was starting to look weary, but Selphie was still bouncing alongside Irvine, who still couldn't take his eyes off the copper haired girl. His eyes, even from such a distance, held tell-tale expression of pure adoration. The cowboy's days of sleeping with every pretty that went his way were numbered. Selphie had drawn him in with her carefree attitude and caught him with her acute understanding of the nature of all things explosive.

Just like Rinoa would eventually draw in Squall...

They were destined to be the wonder couple with the fairy tale ending... the one good thing that came out the war in the other timeline. There was no room in there for Seifer Almasy. Not that he particularly wanted room in any relationship that involved Rinoa, but Squall...

It didn't matter that the two seemed to dislike each other at the moment; Seifer had no doubt it had been the same way the other time around. The distance between the two would eventually close and they'd wind up together given enough time.

Seifer's stomach twisted at the thought of having to stand by and watch as Squall and Rinoa fell for each other. Fuu's joke was definitely not a joke after all and Seifer desperately wished she'd just let things be. He'd never known that something could hurt so much before.

Sighing to himself, Seifer ignored the odd, sideways glance Squall shot him. For now Seifer felt safe enough spending time with his fellow gunblade specialist. There would be plenty of time later, when Rinoa finally managed to edge in and snag the brunet, for things like recriminations and avoidance.

* * *

Zell was threatening Irvine's life should Selphie's heart get broken. Selphie was out the hallway singing some song about trains that was loud enough to be heard through the door and over the sound of the train moving. Quistis was chatting with Rinoa about make-up or something else equally girly. Squall looked like he had a headache.

Seifer did have a headache and was ten minutes away from shoving Zell's shoe down the martial artist's throat if he didn't shut up. Of course, then Seifer would have to issue a threat of his own to the cowboy, but he could barely bring himself to open his eyes. It just didn't seem to be worth the effort.

Thus, as everybody else sat around either talking or brooding, Seifer pretended to be asleep on one of the bottom bunks. He figured he must have been successful at his imitation of sleep since nobody had bothered him directly yet. At least Quistis had stopped looking at him like he was a particularly interesting experiment and Rinoa quit shooting 'puppy-love' looks in his direction.

He'd forgotten, though, how truly 'hang-dog' pathetic Rinoa could be when it suited her to be pouty. She could make it look adorable. Then again, Rinoa could make anything sexy, which was one of the many reasons why Seifer had dated her. But in the end she was a child at heart who just couldn't seem to grow up. All her potential just seemed to stagnate.

Rinoa's childishness was what confused Seifer the most about the relationship that would spring up between her and Squall. Rinoa must have matured during the war, but from what Seifer knew, that didn't make much sense. Rinoa knew battle; she'd found herself in plenty of skirmishes as a member of the Timber Owls. She'd seen others be injured and even die, but those events only phased her. She didn't change for such things. Perhaps, then, it was acquiring the Sorceress powers or being betrayed by Seifer that made her grow up. But then... if it was the latter and not the former...

Seifer tried to shut off his thoughts. He was getting obsessive and it had to stop. There was no point in trying to understand something that hadn't even happened yet. What he needed to do was get some sleep. Unfortunately he'd been trying, and failing, to sleep the entire time they'd been on board the train.

Truthfully, Seifer might have been able to sleep had it not been for Squall's presence. He was sitting on the edge of the bunk that Seifer had chosen to stretch out on. Too keyed up by Squall's presence, Seifer couldn't sleep. Too eager to take advantage of what little time he'd have near Squall, Seifer didn't move.

"Seifer?" Squall's quiet voice sent a jolt through Seifer. "How much trouble would I get into if I were to strangle all of them for being irritating?" His voice was pitched just low enough for Seifer to hear, but was lost to the rest of the room.

"I doubt Kramer would appreciate it," Seifer responded without bothering to open his eyes. "I wouldn't mind if they all got knocked unconscious. I never realized Trepe couldn't be so girly before."

"I know." There was veiled amusement in Squall's tone. "We're nearly at the station, by the way."

"Dammit." Seifer sighed and sat up, glaring out the window. The city beyond was dark as evening set in, though there were lights blinking into existence to stave off the night. Galbadia's capital city had once had quite the night life, but Deling was dying in stages as their President increasingly tightened his grip on the country. "I couldn't sleep because of their yapping," Seifer muttered, shaking off his observations.

Squall surveyed the room and then brought his right hand up to his mouth. Sticking two fingers in his mouth, he let out a shrill whistle and then crossed his arms over his chest. "Zell, get Selphie in here."

Swinging his legs over the side of the bunk, Seifer maneuvered himself so that he was sitting side-by0side with Squall. They watched as the other grew quiet and Zell fetched Selphie from the corridor. Once everyone was assembled, Squall began to speak.

"We'll be pulling into the station in a few minutes," Squall began. "Our first order of business is going to be making contact with General Caraway in order to find out the particulars of our mission. Afterwards we'll looking into getting rooms at the hotel." Seeing agreement on their races, Squall moved on to the next subject. "We don't know what our mission entails right now or what the dangers to us might be. If anything happens to me... Seifer is to take over as team leader."

Quistis' mouth tightened, but she didn't object. Selphie and Rinoa seemed happy enough with the choice while Irvine seemed completely unsurprised. Zell appeared to be fighting the urge to object, making the next words out of his mouth a complete surprise; "that's a good choice. You weren't that bad as the leader of our Dollet mission."

"Thanks, Dincht," Seifer responded, stunned by Zell's admission.

The train came to a stop with a lurch and a stewardess' voice could be heard over the intercom telling passengers that they'd arrived at Deling City. Seifer felt his chest grow tight as the reality of the situation sank back in. They were going to try to kill Edea... Matron.

In the other timeline, Irvine's shot failed. Seifer would just have to have faith that some things would stay the same.

* * *

Caraway's mansion looked just how Seifer remembered it. He'd never been there with Rinoa before – even if Rinoa had been on speaking terms with her father when they'd dated, he doubted she'd have considered him the 'take home to meet Daddy' type – but he'd seen the outside a few times during previous visits and... in the other timeline, he'd seen the inside when arresting Caraway for conspiring with a Garden cadet to rescue his daughter from D District.

It was actually a really nice place. However, Seifer recalled being oddly reminded of a museum. But then, most mansions left him with that impression, though this was the only one he'd been inside.

Rinoa tried to hang at the back of the group when they met with the guard at the gate, but Seifer would have none of it. Grabbing her arm, Seifer shoved Rinoa to the front so that she was standing next to Squall. "Are you really saying that you intend to make Caraway's daughter tramp through an ancient temple just so that we can retrieve an irrelevant code?"

Most of the group looked relieved as the guard reluctantly opened the gate and ushered them up the walk towards the mansion. Rinoa, however...

"I didn't want him to know I'm here," Rinoa hissed angrily at Seifer.

"He's going to see you with us," Seifer responded blankly. "I think he'll notice, one way or another, that you are... well... you. Whether or not you wanted him to know you're here is kind of irrelevant unless you were planning on running off to the hotel to make reservations for us at the last second."

Rinoa huffed and crossed her arms in agitation. "It's never about what I want with you, is it?"

Not about to get into that argument with his ex, Seifer just quirked an eyebrow and shrugged.

"Your mission to liberate Timber isn't our primary mission anymore," Squall interrupted. "Until it is the primary mission again, you have to listen to us and not the other way around." In other words, keep walking and shut up.

Seifer grinned as Rinoa pouted. He probably shouldn't enjoy hearing Squall snap at Rinoa so much, but...

Storm blue eyes caught Seifer's green ones for a moment, clearly asking 'how could you have ever dated this girl?'

By then their guide was ushering them into one of the rooms and informed them that the General would be with them shortly.

"What can we expect from your father?" Squall asked.

"He's devoted to the idea of Galbadian supremacy," Rinoa responded, settling comfortably in a chair. "He honestly believes that all of the continent should be united under Galbadian rule. There must be something about this Sorceress that has spooked him... something must have convinced him that destroying the Sorceress is in the best interests of Galbadia. It's the only reason he'd work with SeeD."

There was a pause and then Rinoa added, "don't leave me in this house, okay? No matter what happens." Squall didn't respond, though he looked about ready to roll his eyes as he pressed for further details on her father. Fortunately Rinoa was willing to fill in those details without much prompting.

Seifer ignored Rinoa's description of General Caraway – he remembered the man well enough from the other timeline – and settled on the piano bench, idly tapping out a familiar tune before pulling the lid over the keys shut. The door opened, admitting the General, and Seifer felt an odd sense of dread.

The mission was finally going to be revealed.

"So, you're Rinoa's father?" Selphie asked after a moment of quiet.

"Yes," Caraway answered as he glanced over at his sulking daughter. "Though I can't recall the last time she called me that."

Zell looked antsy, as though he wanted to say something, but managed to keep his mouth shut about it. Seifer also felt rather tempted to speak up about how it was rather remiss of a Galbadian General to raise a daughter who was now considered a wanted terrorist by his government, but Squall sent him an anticipatory look that kept him silent. Now wasn't the time to further antagonize Rinoa, no matter how entertaining he might find it.

"Once our mission is accomplished here, we'll return to working for Rinoa, as per our contract," Squall informed Caraway calmly. "I don't know what your situation is, but please don't interfere when the time comes."

"And if I do?" Caraway sounded more curious than threatening to Seifer's ears.

Squall didn't look amused, however. "We're SeeD. We'll act accordingly." The tone of Squall's voice was subtly different than normal; the brunet was definitely annoyed with the General now.

While nearly everyone else seemed oblivious to Squall's irritation, Seifer was pleased to note that Irvine was just as observant as Seifer remembered the sharpshooter being when they were children. "Hey, hey, hey, fellas... we're here to knock off the Sorceress, right? So let's get down to business."

Frowning, the General nodded. "Okay, let me explain the plan. I'm sure you know about the Galbadian government reaching an agreement with Sorceress Edea." Seifer managed, if only just barely, not to react at the sound of Edea's name. Hyne, how he hated the idea of attacking Matron. Even if this were something she'd want – to be destroyed rather than continuing to be Ultimecia's puppet – Seifer knew that if it came down to him and he was the only one left to strike her down... he'd falter.

"There is going to be a ceremony and parade tomorrow night to commemorate the Sorceress' agreement to become the Galbadian Ambassador," Caraway continued to explain. "If you'll follow me out onto the balcony, I can visually demonstrate the plan as I explain it."

Obediently, they all followed the General out onto the balcony, which connected the office to some other room. The balcony itself overlooked the main street and gave them a clear view of both the commemorative gate and the presidential residence beyond.

"The ceremony will begin at the presidential residence," Caraway began, gesturing to the building as he spoke its name. "At that time, you will split into two teams and get into position. The gateway team will enter the commemorative gate's control room. There is only one door inside the gateway, which will be left unlocked, and the control room has a clearly labeled master control switch that raises and lowers the gates. The team is to standby until the Sorceress' float is positioned beneath the gateway, which should be at approximately 2000 hours. At which time, the sniper team will need to already be in position.

"The sniper team is to wait in the crowd during the Sorceress' speech. Once her parade departs, the sniper team has a limited window of opportunity to sneak into the presidential residence. Even the slightest commotion during the speech could potentially lead to the cancellation of the parade, so lay low until then. Once inside the residence, head to the clock tower via an access hatch in the corridor leading to the Sorceress' room, which is located directly behind the dais where she'll give her speech.

"Currently the clock tower has a digital clock on top of it, but the old carousel clock is still hidden beneath it; a sniper rifle will already be in place there by the time the ceremony begins. It should be easy enough for your team to locate."

Caraway took a deep breath, a sad look stealing across his face for a moment. The General was probably struggling with the fact that what he was doing amounted to treason. Hard enough that his daughter fought everything he stood for, but to stand against his own government like this... Seifer felt oddly respectful of the General all of a sudden. Despite the fact that the Sorceress could easily force the continent to unite under Galbadian rule, Caraway was willing to destroy her because he didn't want his people dominated by a woman who seemed to have been driven mad by her magic.

In his own way, Caraway was a good man. Seifer wondered if Rinoa could see that.

"At 2000 hours, the two clocks will change position. The sniper must take his shot then. If the sniper team cannot take that shot – for whatever reason – or if the sniper's shot misses, then the gateway team must lower the gates and start their assault on the Sorceress. The gateway team must not let the Sorceress' float leave the gateway. It should take about five minutes for the float to pass all the way beneath the gate; if the Sorceress has not been shot by the time the float is about to leave the gate, you must lower the gates. The bars only take a few seconds to lower, but don't leave shutting them to the last moment."

Caraway led them back into the office at that point. "Don't forget that the Sorceress gives her speech at 1800 hours and the parade is set to begin at 1830. Since it is meant to traverse the entire city, the parade may very well take longer than the hour-and-a-half estimate we're working with. Just bear in mind that it might take less time, too. Though you're all young, I know that Garden trains it's SeeDs well. I have no doubt that, if something goes wrong, you'll all be able to adapt to the circumstances as necessary.

"That's all I have to say on the matter. All that's left is for us to wait until tomorrow evening. You're all free to scout the city as you see fit... though I must ask that you keep my daughter out of this."

"Father..." Rinoa sounded like she was going to argue with him.

"You have no idea, Rinoa, what it is like to hear reports about fighting between the Galbadian military and those terrorists you work with. I hear about soldiers and civilians alike dying and I never know if one of them is you."

Rinoa ducked her head. "Daddy..." she sighed and looked up at him. "I'm sorry," she told him, the words sounding honest to Seifer at least. But she didn't hug her father and she didn't promise to stay out of danger. Caraway looked all too aware of these things as he moved towards the door.

"Report to my residence when you're ready. We'll hold a final meeting then. Afterwards, we'll proceed with the operation." Glancing briefly at his daughter again, Caraway left.

They stood in silence for a long moment and then Seifer said, "we're not being told everything. He's holding something back."

"I think you're right," Squall agreed. "Right now, we just have to assume he'll tell us whatever it is once we return." Turning his gaze on the door that Caraway left through, Squall's eyes narrowed. "I don't like this..."

"Um... it'll look bad enough for my father as it is if people realize that he met with us before the Sorceress dies. We should probably limit our time here," Rinoa spoke up, displaying the oft-hidden intelligence that had made her the leader of the Forest Owls. "Otherwise I'd recommend just staying here for the night, given how many guest rooms there are."

"The hotel I mentioned before is just down the street," Irvine spoke up.

"It looked familiar when we passed it on the way here," Selphie added. "I think it's the same one we saw the first time we watched Sir Laguna and his friends in the dream world."

"Dream world?" Seifer and Irvine both echoed in confusion. What the hell was the dream world?

"We'll tell you about it later," Zell spoke up.

Squall nodded and said, "it's rather... complicated."

"Let's just get out of here," Rinoa whispered, appearing highly uncomfortable at the thought of remaining in her childhood home.


	5. Chapter 5

Disclaimer - If Kit or I own FF8, the game never would have been localized in the U.S. 'cause, let's face it, they'd have tried to make Squall a girl in our version. ^_~

A/N - Everything does look so much nicer the second time around. I could make terrible jokes at this point (obviously involving the story title) but Kit promised violence if I were to do something like that. So we'll just move on to the chapter, shall we?

_Chapter Five_

The hotel was fairly nice, if unusually dusty, and the management seemed a little too enthusiastic to have them book three rooms. Despite the upcoming parade, there weren't many visitors to the Galbadian capital. Squall was visibly unhappy with this development, but Rinoa had a point about it being a bad idea to spend too much time with her father. It wasn't safe for him to be seen harboring the SeeD who'd been sent to assassinate the Sorceress, though if he was only noticed meeting with them it might very well turn out to be damning.

Unless Caraway managed to take control of Galbadia the way he had in the other timeline, that is. Seifer could still remember the way Caraway had been far too happy at his execution in the other future, but the new found respect he had for the man remained. After being thrown in D District on Seifer's orders, it had been pretty understandable that he'd need to do something to appease the Galbadian citizens and hadn't been too concerned that the scapegoat in question was only eighteen. Throwing the fact that he'd dated and dumped Rinoa in Caraway's had been a very bad idea on Seifer's part, though. It made Seifer's death personal.

Maybe he might have even lived otherwise. But right now, Seifer was more than happy to have traded all those 'what if's' in for the second chance he was living. It might not have been the 'what if' he'd have chosen himself, but better than any 'redo' he could have imagined at the time.

For now, though, there was no avoiding sticking out like a sore thumb in the face of the lack of tourists in Deling. With any luck, people would assume they were just high school students on vacation – maybe celebrating their graduation or something. Students were far less memorable than SeeD... but it would mean leaving their weapons behind when they went to check out the city in the morning. Given their plans to assassinate the Sorceress, the less they stuck out, the better.

There was no helping it now, though. All they could hope for was to minimize the damage.

Seifer collapsed onto the bed nearest the door and kicked off his boots, listening as they thudded against the ground. Hyperion was in its sheath, which he'd already removed and leaned against the wall nearest the bed, and his jacket was hooked on the back of the desk chair a few feet away. It had been a long day and his on-again, off-again headache was mostly gone, but had left him feeling pretty tired. Unfortunately, his roommate didn't seem particularly tired at all.

Squall was pacing, his feet making a soft shuffling noise against the carpet while his gunblade occasionally thwacked against his leg. Seifer propped himself up on his elbows and watched the brunet for a few moments in an attempt to gauge for himself what was running through Squall's head.

"I'm not telepathic, Squall," Seifer finally said. "If there's something bothering you and you can't work it out on your own, you'll have to speak up about it."

Freezing in place, Squall scowled at Seifer. "Nothing is bothering me."

"Then you have no reason to be pacing around... unless you're trying to see how long it'll take to wear a hole in the carpet?" Seifer smirked as Squall scowled even further. "We've got what must be the crappiest assignment in the history of Garden," Seifer elaborated. "Of course you're bothered."

"Oh, really," Squall snapped. "And just what makes it the... crappiest assignment in the history of Garden?"

"We're technically still rookies, we've got Rinoa tagging along like our own personal cheerleader, Quistis won't admit that she's a little offended not to be in charge, Selphie and Irvine have discovered 'puppy-love' for one another, Zell is Zell, and..."_ I've finally realized that I've got a crush on you that is no where near as recent as I wish it was,_ "we're supposed to assassinate this Sorceress without any real reason as to why. We'll get it done because we're SeeD, but not getting an explanation for why we've been assigned this mission is tough."

Squall sighed and shrugged. Grabbing the desk chair, he pulled it out and straddled it so that he could wrap his arms around the back. Seifer tried not to think to hard on how the brunet was effectively hugging his jacket as Squall sat there in silence.

"Our original mission parameters were to liberate Timber at any cost, no matter how long it might take. We weren't there for just one mission or a few missions; we were supposed to be stuck there until Timber finally got freed." Squall shuddered a little and tightened his arms around the chair. "But being in Timber put us in a position to witness the Sorceress' TV broadcast and our relocation to Galbadia Garden for Rinoa's safety made us available for the assassination assignment.

"It's like... somehow Cid knew what was coming and set this up. That's crazy, though... isn't it?"

Seifer stared at Squall for a long moment, too startled to respond. There was no way Kramer could have known... right? Edea was his wife, though. How could he not have at least guessed? Assuming Kramer knew about the Sorceress controlling Edea, then he had to know that having his wife killed would do no one any good. Just what game was being played here?

"I don't know," Seifer finally managed to say. "Trepe and I were already on our way out of Garden when the Sorceress did her broadcast, so the orders were issued before her existence became public. We got the orders from the Shumi faculty members – Kramer wasn't there – so the orders could have come from just NORG... but either way, they both had to have known about Sorceress Edea before her position was formally announced."

"..." Squall stood abruptly and returned to his pacing.

"You saw the Sorceress on TV in Timber, though..." Seifer spoke up, hoping to stall Squall's pacing again. He'd missed the broadcast this time and interrupted it the last time; he couldn't help but be curious about what she'd said. "As I said, I missed it. What did she have to say?"

Squall's agitation sharpened even as his pacing halted again. "Deling introduced the Sorceress as the new Galbadian Ambassador," Squall answered quietly. "He announced that he was planning to arrange for a peace conference between the nations of the world and then turned things over to Sorceress Edea. That was when... things got weird.

"Zell, Selphie, and I were on the fire escape leading to the back entrance of the TV station at the time. Rinoa had some half-baked plan to storm the station and make a declaration of Timber's independence before President Deling could do his broadcast, but I... I got pissed off at her and she ran off in a huff when she didn't like what I had to say."

"Rinoa doesn't take criticism well," Seifer agreed in amusement. It wasn't often that Squall would completely derail from a train of thought in the middle of speaking aloud and Seifer wanted to imagine, for a little while, that it was because Squall was so at ease with him that he was speaking his thoughts instead of hiding them away.

"She's a brat," Squall agreed. "But she does care about her father, which is something at least." Sighing, Squall dropped back onto the chair, looping his arms around Seifer's jacket again. "Anyway... I don't know whether it was the broadcast or if maybe we were close to the room where she was..." Squall trailed off uncertainly. "It got really cold." He seemed almost lost for a moment. "It was ninety-degree weather, but it was like the temperature dropped to a third of that the moment she came on the air." Shaking his head, Squall let out a sigh. "Anyway, she gave a little speech about looking towards the future... a future where Sorceresses wouldn't be feared and war would be eliminated... they would have been nice sentiments if she'd made any sense while making them."

"Oh," Seifer shrugged, not really sure what to say. Squall was obviously disturbed by the Sorceress, but had no intention of elaborating beyond the sudden drop in temperature. Searching for a way to keep Squall talking, Seifer recalled something Selphie had told Irvine at the Caraway mansion. "So, what's this 'dream world' that Selphie mentioned earlier? Who's Sir Laguna?" Seifer hoped that the change in topic would calm the flurry of thoughts running through Squall's head.

"He's a moron," Squall responded tersely, clearly just as unhappy with the new topic as he was with the old one. "On the way to Timber, Zell, Selphie, and I were forced into a sleep-like state by something unidentified. While we were unconscious, we shared a dream about a team of Galbadian soldiers during the Sorceress War. On the way to Galbadia Garden, it happened again. We apparently scared Rinoa pretty badly when it happened." Squall's unhappy expression grew darker. "We were arguing before I passed out and she wouldn't let go of my arm afterwards."

"Having such a pretty girl latch onto you like that must have been pure torture," Seifer teased, ignoring the jealousy that flared in his chest.

Glowering at Seifer, Squall ground out, "I don't need or want anyone to latch onto me, much less someone as empty-headed as her." Squall put his head down on the chair, his cheek pressing against the jacket as he took slow, calming breaths.

Seifer bit his lip as he lay back, thinking of how things would change soon enough. Squall would fall in love with Rinoa's stubborn, 'won't take no for an answer' attitude and learn to tolerate her clingy side. Seifer would have to stand by and watch as his heart got trampled on... because...

Staring up at the ceiling in confusion, Seifer found himself wondering just why he had to stand back and do nothing where Squall and Rinoa were concerned. Would it really hurt to try and change what happened between them? Didn't he deserve a chance at happiness? Wasn't that part of what this whole second chance thing was about? Yet... Squall hadn't shown any interest in Seifer beyond friendship, though that was certainly more interest than he'd shown in the raven-haired beauty.

Sitting up all the way, Seifer decided it was time to get some sleep. He shouldn't make decisions that could alter history, or at least break his heart, while as exhausted as he was. Pulling off his shirt, Seifer folded it and dropped it beside his gunblade and then stood briefly to remove his pants, which wound up on top of his shirt. Clad only in his boxers and socks, Seifer flipped off the lights before clambering into bed. The soft glow of the city lights made Squall just barely visible, still sitting with his head resting against the back of the chair. "Good night Squall," Seifer said firmly, closing his eyes.

"Good night Seifer," Squall responded absently.

* * *

Seifer awoke to the sight of a copper haired girl, who was wearing a bright yellow dress and an even brighter smile, bouncing on the edge of his bed. Squall was still asleep in the other bed, but it was unlikely that Selphie had any intention of letting that last long. Sitting up, Seifer pinned Selphie with one of his meanest glares, but the girl had the audacity to giggle at him and ogle his abs.

"Fanservice," she trilled happily.

"Selphie, get off my bed," Seifer responded calmly, willing his voice to stay steady.

"That's what she said," Selphie declared with another giggle.

Repressing an annoyed groan, Seifer asked carefully, "have you been drinking coffee?"

"Yup. Quistis got some. Rinoa only wanted orange juice, but I totally went for the coffee. Then I picked the lock to Irvine and Zell's room, but both of them were already awake. So I came here to wake you and Squall since neither of you were awake then, though you are now..." Seifer wasn't entirely certain that Selphie was breathing anymore, she was speaking so fast. She did need to breathe like normal people did, right?

Holding up a hand to silence the perky girl, Seifer refrained from actually placing his hand over her mouth. He didn't want to risk her deciding to lick his palm, since that was generally his reaction to people when they tried to silence him in such a manner. "I get the picture," he assured her.

_Quistis is going to die._

Hopping off Seifer's bed, Selphie started towards Squall. Without thinking, Seifer reached out and snagged her arm. "I'd let him be, Selphie."

"Why?" Selphie gave him an innocent look, but he could practically see the devil horns poking up through her copper hair. She was just itching to cause trouble and annoy people thanks to the caffeine running through her veins. _Damn Quistis..._

"Just because I didn't wake violently doesn't mean he won't," Seifer responded. Years of being Fujin's roommate and being woken by her when he overslept his alarm had ingrained into Seifer the concept that any violent action upon waking in a bed would be returned two-fold. Sleeping outside was a different story, thankfully enough. Squall, however, had been roommates with some pushover that had finally washed out of Garden after the recent exam. There was simply no telling how the icy brunet would take being woken by an over-caffeinated Selphie-monster.

"Oh, good point." Selphie easily slid her arm from his grasp and turned to beam at him. "Thanks." She took a moment to ogle him further and then chirped "fanservice" once more before frolicking out the door.

"There's something wrong with that girl," Squall muttered as soon as the door shut.

"You were awake?" Seifer demanded, annoyed that he'd had to deal with the girl all on his own for no reason.

"I woke up about the same time you did," Squall responded, glaring at the door. "She picked our lock," he growled, his tone of voice sending pleasant shivers up Seifer's spine. Unlike Seifer, Squall had only ditched his jacket and pants the night before and slept in his shirt and boxers instead of just the latter. That didn't stop him from looking rather disheveled and sexy as his shirt rode up to reveal toned stomach muscles...

Seifer swallowed dryly and tore his eyes away from Squall's body as the brunet stretched his arms. Selphie's voice echoed in Seifer's mind, whispering 'fanservice' tauntingly. "Yeah... but Quistis is the one who gave her coffee." Seifer glowered at the closed door. Oh yes... Quistis would die a slow and painful death for this one...

"She'll pay for it now that Selphie isn't bothering us," Squall declared with a shrug, calming down. "Selphie will go back to her room and torment Quistis and Rinoa instead of us."

"So... the parade isn't until tonight and I doubt it'll take us long to plot out half-a-dozen escape routes from the city. There isn't really much to do here..." Seifer trailed off. "Any thoughts on how we'll spend the whole day? 'Cause I just can't see time passing quickly unless Minion happens to show up... she always manages to make things interesting."

"Minion?" Squall repeated the name blankly as he grabbed his leather pants off the floor and glanced at the bathroom, his intent on claiming the shower first quite obvious.

"Cadell Minion," Seifer elaborated. "She's a blue witch who used to attend Galbadia Garden, but left when it became clear that Headmaster Martine was never going to let her take the SeeD exam in Balamb. She likes to claim it's because Martine lacks a sense of humor; I like to say it's because Martine's got a stick up his ass." Seeing the unimpressed expression on Squall's face, Seifer shrugged. "She's got a few tricks that Trepe hasn't managed yet."

"You must like her a lot, to speak of her that way," Squall muttered.

Seifer tried to squash the part of him that was hoping Squall's odd tone meant that the brunet was jealous. After all, just because he'd gone insane and developed this crush didn't mean that he had to go around interpreting every little strange thing Squall did as obscure signs of encouragement. He was not a little girl pining for the man of his dreams, after all. He was eighteen years old and perfectly capable of handling an unrequited crush.

"Minion's a good friend," Seifer agreed and then added, "she's pretty well known in Deling now, though, so actually running into her would be a bad idea. Min's a lesbian and, well, given the way most of Galbadia feels about gay couples, her attempts to build a Galbadian version of Dollet and Balamb's LBGT alliance hasn't made her very popular around here."

"Is that why she left Galbadia Garden, then?" Squall's voice sounded a little more at ease. "Martine seems like the stereotypical Galbadian..."

"Yeah, he didn't want to let her become SeeD because of her sexuality. As I said, the man has a stick up his ass." Seifer sighed and added, "it's too bad we're not here for fun. She'd confuse the hell out of Trepe." Squall actually laughed. Seifer sat up a little straighter at the sound.

Grabbing his clothes off the floor and transferring them to his bed, Seifer stood up and started to dress. "I'm gonna grab some breakfast while you're in the shower. Want me to bring you back anything?"

"Coffee and... whatever looks good."

"I'll surprise you, then." Seifer finished buttoning up his pants and glanced over at Squall as he reached for his shirt on the bed. The brunet was staring at him with a weird expression on his face and, when their eyes met, Seifer was surprised to see what looked like a faint blush appear on Squall's face right before he ducked into the bathroom. "Huh..." Seifer watched as the door shut with a somewhat firmer than necessary click.

Seifer might have been misreading Squall's tone when he'd asked about Minion, but... was Seifer really misreading that too? Had Squall actually been checking him out?

Heart thudding a little harder in his chest, Seifer wondered again if Squall really had to end up with Rinoa this time around. Just because it happened in the other timeline didn't mean things had to be the same here. Besides, Squall dating Rinoa couldn't possibly be the lynch pin that lead to Ultimecia's destruction... that was just too ridiculous.

* * *

Stepping out of the bathroom, Seifer ran a hand through his damp hair and grinned at Squall, who was sitting at the desk finishing his coffee. "Ready to rally the troops?"

Squall snorted softly in amusement. "They're all gathered in the girls' room," he said. "I looked in there earlier to tell them to be here by ten hundred." Seifer glanced at the clock, which said 9:57 am. "Rinoa is telling Selphie and Zell stories about Forest Owls' bravery in the face of danger while Quistis and Irvine ask pointed questions that she doesn't want to answer. I wish one of us had the authority to cancel her contract."

"We'll have to bring it up with the Headmaster when we get back." Seifer frowned thoughtfully. "It's awfully stupid of him to unconditionally sign away one of Balamb's only two Gunblade specialists to a revolution unlikely to succeed. That contract ought to have a limit; Rinoa should only be allowed to waste your time for so long, after all."

"You were the one who told her to approach the Headmaster," Squall pointed out.

"I was trying to be nice when I broke up with her," Seifer admitted. "It seemed like the decent thing to offer last summer. I'm rapidly loosing the willingness to be nice to her as time goes by. At some point she has got to realize that I'm not..." he trailed off absently.

"You're not what?"

"I'm not here for her." Seifer took a seat on his bed. "That I've never really been interested in her. I'm not even sure why I dated her... just that... I guess it's because the person that I really want seems unreachable."

Squall opened his mouth to respond, but then clicked it shut as the door creaked open to admit the other five members of their group. Seifer felt relieved by their intrusion. He hadn't meant to say anything about his real feelings; the words had just spilled out. Hopefully Squall wouldn't come back to the subject later; emotions weren't the other gunblader's favorite subject anyway, so Seifer felt fairly confident he wouldn't have to say anything more about it at all.

Now if only Quistis would stop looking at them both so oddly.

"Tonight we're going to have to split into two teams," Squall said, his voice quiet but easily heard throughout the room. "Team one, the sniper team, will consist of Irvine and myself. Since we have to sneak into the clock tower, we're less likely to be noticed if there are only two of us. Seifer, you're in charge of the gateway team, which will include Quistis, Selphie, and Zell. The four of you need to be ready to attack the Sorceress if anything goes wrong on our end." The four of them nodded to themselves.

"What about me?" Rinoa asked.

"You aren't SeeD," Squall responded. "You're a civilian and a client; it's our duty to keep you safe meaning you either wait here at the hotel or at your father's manor. You will not try to help us." Squall gave her a hard look. "We have been trained for missions like this and you haven't. If we have to worry about protecting you and completing our mission, you'll become an unnecessary distraction that we do not have time for. Is that clear?"

A pouty expression appeared on Rinoa's face. It was the sort of mulish look that never failed to give away Rinoa's firm intention to ignore whatever she was being told and do her own thing instead. She was so predictable...

"Hmmph..." Rinoa crossed her arms and glared at Squall. But the brunet held her gaze coldly, eventually forcing her to look away and back down. She couldn't quite resist a parting shot, however. Standing up, she stalked towards the door. "Whatever," she said, slipping out into the hallway.

"Did you have to..." Quistis started to ask, but Seifer cut her off.

"Oh, Rinoa hasn't given up yet, Trepe." He resisted, if only just, the urge to call her Instructor. Quistis was probably having a hard enough time as it was with this mission without him purposely making things worse. Seifer longed to make a smart-alec remark, though. Really, he did... but he held off. "She's not a child, you know. If Rinoa wants to throw a tantrum instead of listening to reason, then there's nothing we can do about it except complete our mission regardless of whatever wrench she manages to throw into things along the way."

"She runs a covert operations group," Quistis objected. "She's not a novice."

"No. She isn't," Seifer agreed easily. "Lucky would be a better description than novice. She thinks she's going to go down in history as some great hero who helps liberate Timber and magically makes everything wonderful again. But the thing about heroes..." he shrugged and trailed off.

"What? Heroes what?" Quistis looked irritated.

"They get other people killed," Irvine filled in.

"Seifer's right," Selphie agreed, bouncing in her seat. "Rinoa fights with a dinky little gadget that looks like a cross between a crossbow and a boomerang; it latches onto her wrist and it's basically useless. But she thinks it's the greatest weapon ever. Up until we had to leave her dog behind in Timber, she kept having to call him in to save her butt. She just isn't ready for an assault on a Sorceress. Maybe even we aren't. We don't know what this Sorceress is capable of. But we're the ones whose responsibility is to fight the Sorceress and protect Rinoa. We can't do that if she purposely endangers herself, and us too, out of misguided stubbornness."

Quistis huffed a little and nodded. "I agree the girl needs a wake-up call, but that's still no reason for us to speak to her in such a manner. She knows this isn't a game."

"So she's just treating it like one for kicks, then?" Seifer held up his hands quickly to head off any sharp retorts Quistis might come up with. "Odds are she's gonna get her wake-up call soon enough. Let's just drop the subject for now."

"If the time comes, we'll deal with her then," Squall agreed. Returning pointedly to the plans for the parade, Squall continued to give instructions. "Irvine, you and I should check the area surrounding the presidential residence. We'll need to plan our entrance and exit strategies. The rest of you should get acquainted with the commemorative gateway; check for hidden or locked entrances..." he shrugged. "You know what to do."

* * *

Seifer really wanted to strangle Zell... and Selphie... and Quistis. At that moment, he truly envied Irvine, who was getting to spend quality time with Squall instead of these three twits.

Zell had to be the most obvious, wide-eyed tourist Seifer had ever seen. Everything about Deling was new and wondrous... to him, anyway. Selphie was trying to figure out how many explosives it would take to kill the Sorceress on the float in the gateway without ruining the 'pretty pictures' on the walls. She was using code words: assassination became translation, Sorceress became quilter, and so on. Quistis, however, had to be the most irritating.

Quistis was subtly pouting. Her pride was wounded since she wasn't in charge of the mission or even second-in-command, though she might have handled it better had she not been recently fired from her instructor's position for reasons including lack of leadership abilities. However, Quistis' wounded ego was causing her to identify with Rinoa's plight – that of a supposedly skilled fighter being stuck on the back burner because the boys wanted to be in charge.

At least Selphie had her head on straight... relatively speaking, at any rate. Sometimes it really felt like Fujin was the only sane woman he knew.

That probably explained why he had a crush on a man. Women were completely nuts and Squall was both sane and sexy. How could he not be attracted?

Snorting softly in amusement at his own thoughts, Seifer reminded himself that it was a good thing that Squall had required them to leave their main weapons at the hotel. If he'd had Hyperion instead of just a concealed semi-automatic, then he'd have probably just decapitated the lot of them already. Guns, however, were louder than blades. He'd get caught if he just out and shot them. Besides... killing them would annoy Squall.

So Seifer's team continued to survive.

Turning the corner to see if there was a convenient, unobserved sewer access point one or two of them could use to further case the place, Seifer froze.

Not more than a few yards away stood a fairly tall man dressed in civies: tennis shoes, jeans, blue button down shirt open over a white t-shirt, smarmy smile firmly in place... The man was flirting with some chick selling flowers. He grinned a little, running a hand coyly through his brown hair while faking a shy look in his hazel eyes. The girl blushed and giggled, her eyes flicking to the ground in pleased embarrassment.

Seifer couldn't stop staring; he couldn't believe what he was seeing. The thing was, that man shouldn't have been standing there in those clothes and flirting with that girl. He should have been in the tiniest cell D-District prison had while sporting highly unflattering prison fatigues.

A faintly nauseous feeling swept over Seifer, but he felt trapped by the scene. He couldn't breathe; any second the man would look over at him and everything would be blown to hell. Still, Seifer stood there, frozen in mute horror.

_If only that poor girl knew what kind of monster she's smiling so sweetly at,_ Seifer thought pityingly. _She's lucky the parade is tonight or he'd... hell, unless he's the Sorceress' Knight, it won't matter that there's a parade._ Seifer paused as his thought fully registered. _Unless he's..._

_She wouldn't. Ultimecia was a psychopathic bitch, but even she wouldn't choose... _

Quistis' hand on his shoulder snapped Seifer out of his frozen state. Grabbing her wrist, Seifer dragged Quistis back around the corner and signaled for Zell and Selphie to get their asses over to him, pronto.

Snatching her arm away from Seifer and glaring at him with a look he'd only ever seen her give an enemy right before unleashing her laser vision, Quistis hissed, "just what the hell was that for?"

"What's going on?" Zell asked as he walked up, Selphie bouncing alongside him.

"There's someone around the corner who is very likely to recognize everyone here, bar Selphie," Seifer began, deciding to ease into the explanation.

"Who? Who?" Selphie hopped from one foot to the other, visibly restraining herself from dashing around the corner to take a look.

The urge to rub at his nonexistent scar between his eyes made Seifer's hand twitch at his side. He shoved his hands into his jacket pockets to help make resisting the temptation easier. "James McCormick... he's ex-Balamb SeeD. He's supposed to be in jail – D-District – on multiple counts of rape." If Kramer had a problem with Seifer telling the others then the old man could kick Seifer out on his ass once they got back from the assignment. For now, Seifer didn't give a damn about Garden confidentiality or politics; the team needed to know just who they were up against and Seifer was the only one with all the details. "If the bastard sees us, he'll recognize us and blow our cover. If he sees me, though, it'll probably be worse."

"Why you?" Zell asked slowly, not seeming to completely comprehend what Seifer was saying. It was understandable, though. Having the fact that even SeeD could turn that bad dumped on him all of sudden had to be mind-numbing.

"Because Seifer's the one who figured out what McCormick was doing and got him... arrested." Quistis paused, uncertain as to just what really had gone down. She seemed worried and pale, her anger having drained away. "What's he doing out of prison?"

"How the hell am I supposed to know? I'm not psychic, Trepe." Glancing back at the corner, Seifer's mind replayed the way McCormick had been suavely charming the unsuspecting florist. "He's in Galbadia's capital city instead of locked up in jail," Seifer mused aloud. "At the same time, there's a Sorceress throwing herself a parade..."

"You don't think it's a coincidence," Quistis stated flatly.

"Are you even sure its him?" Selphie asked hopefully. "I mean... maybe it's just someone who looks a lot like him."

"He nearly killed me, Selphie," Seifer responded distantly. "That's not the sort of person I'd mistake strangers on the street for."

"Squall's not gonna like this," Zell muttered.

Seifer nodded in agreement, not saying anything more. His shoulder was starting to hurt.


	6. Interlude 1

Disclaimer - Oh! Look! There's a new scene in this interlude... er... Kit and Emcey own nothing. They are like poor children who are allowed to play in other people's sandboxes out of pity. And then they make beautiful sandcastles dedicated to the wonders of slash.

7-7-2011 - We have reached a landmark! The first Interlude! ^_^

A/N - So... about the new scene. When Kit and I first wrote this chapter, it felt like something was missing. We liked it, but there was just... something not quite there. After putting up with such a crappy semester and being basically smacked in the face by both Kramer and Garden Security's inadequacies_, _Seifer didn't exactly have a reason to stick around. A hero-complex only goes so far, after all. So after a certain amount of debate on our part, we added in the new scene. While we imply what it is that kept Seifer in Garden later in the story, this should make it a little clearer._  
_

_Interlude One – Six Months Before Making SeeD_

Squall was not worried.

He had never worried about anyone in the past and had no intention of that changing any time soon, especially not for that cocky idiot known as Seifer Almasy. He was simply... mildly perturbed by Seifer's out-of-character behavior.

That was all.

At least, that was what Squall had been telling himself for the past month.

For weeks, Seifer's grades had been slipping. The blonde hadn't challenged Squall to a spar in just as long. Fujin and Raijin had barely been seen in Seifer's company for two weeks, but it was obvious they weren't fighting. The Disciplinary Committee had done something to royally piss off the Shumi faculty members, who'd been giving the various committee members detentions for things just barely less ridiculous than 'breathing heavily.' Headmaster Cid was desperately trying to pretend nothing was wrong, but things had never been so tense in Garden before and somehow Seifer was at the center of it.

But Squall wasn't worried. Seifer didn't really matter all that much to him, after all. The blonde cadet was simply the only other gunblade specialist in the entirety of Garden (including both Trabia and Galbadia, not just Balamb) and it was only natural that Squall would be a little bothered that his only sparring partner seemed to disappear the second classes let out every day for a month.

Squall was just... frustrated.

"Well, if the Headmaster is content to sit back and pretend that all of this is going to just blow over..." Seifer's voice caught Squall's attention.

Trying to be unobtrusive, Squall moved to stand directly at the corner and leaned against the wall. He opened up his history book and pretended to read. Then he flipped it over so that no one would notice that he'd been holding the book upside down for a few moments. Seifer and the other DC members didn't even notice that Squall was in eavesdropping distance.

"I mean... they all identified McCormick as the perpetrator. So, yeah, they didn't see his face, but they all saw his scar..." Seifer let out a sharp, frustrated sound. "The guy was standing in front of Kramer when he threatened to kill me. How the hell does someone like him make SeeD?" His green eyes clouded with disgust and he shuddered faintly. "Almost makes it seem like it'd be better to leave Garden, doesn't it?"

"Seifer..." Fujin gave the blonde a worried look.

"Anyway, I'm gonna take matters down to the Balamb PD. All the rapes took place in town, so the BPD can legally claim jurisdiction. Then Kramer won't be able to pretend this is some big misunderstanding anymore. He'll have to discharge McCormick and hand him over to people who will actually make him pay for what he's done."

"It'll look really bad for Garden, ya know?" Raijin added in. "Kramer's gonna have to scramble to make sure the fallout doesn't hurt Garden's image, ya know."

"That's his problem," Seifer growled, crossing his arms. "His students and SeeDs should be more important to him than this."

"Who's going with you?" asked one of the other DC members; Squall thought the guy was called Mitch, but he hadn't really paid enough attention to anyone in the Disciplinary Committee aside from the lead three.

"What?"

"McCormick threatened to kill you and considering that he's a confirmed rapist, I can't seem him caring much about adding murder to his crimes." Mitch shrugged and added, "you shouldn't go alone, Almasy."

"AFFIRMATIVE," Fujin agreed.

The rest added their protests, but Seifer overruled them. "Fuu, Rai, you two have already used up all your town passes for the month and threat of you have that test out in the field tonight. McCormick thinks he's won; right now Kramer would rather believe McCormick's a saint and that I'm just being trouble. But if I get hurt, then McCormick will lose Kramer's willful blindness. It'd be as good as confessing on his part and our esteemed Headmaster would finally have to grow a pair and toss the asshole in jail where he belongs."

"This isn't a game, Seifer! We don't want you getting killed, ya know?"

"Of course this isn't a game!" Seifer snapped, audibly insulted. "After I interviewed all those girls..." Seifer's voice choked off and he took a steadying breath. "This isn't a game, but it does need to end."

"Sorry, sorry... I didn't mean it like that..."

"Nah..." Seifer took another deep breath. "I know what you meant. I shouldn't have snapped at you. I just... I haven't been sleeping well. This whole thing has me on edge. I want this guy out of Garden fast, before someone else gets hurt because of him."

"We know," Fujin said softly. "Go. Be safe."

The group split up, Seifer headed for the motor pool.

Squall could barely believe his ears. There was a SeeD who was a rapist. Seifer had been spending all his time obsessively investigating the violation of several women, most of whom were likely SeeD or cadets. Headmaster Cid and the faculty were dragging their heels in dealing with the affront to all things SeeD because they were hesitant to believe it could even be possible...

They were being stupid, refusing to believe the danger in front of them because Seifer was just a cadet. A cadet who'd already failed the SeeD exam twice as of three weeks ago, at that. McCormick, a SeeD with three years under his belt, understandably looked more trustworthy as far as surface appearances went. That was no excuse, though.

McCormick, whoever he was, had just earned Squall's undying hatred. The bastard had threatened to kill Seifer, who was going alone to Balamb to present his case to the police.

That utter moron.

Okay, so now Squall was worried.

* * *

Seifer sighed in relief as the Detective finished looking over everything the Disciplinary Committee had collected. All their evidence and conclusions lay scattered across the desk. Finally it seemed that their hard work would pay off.

"We'll have to talk to the victims, get them to sign off on official statements," Detective Sorrenson finally told Seifer, looking up at the blonde. "Everything else is fine as is, though. You run a tight crew, Cadet Almasy. This is impressive work. I know some officers who aren't half this thorough. I only wish you hadn't had to do it."

Seifer understood the sentiment; the man wasn't trying to be condescending. In a better world, McCormick would have been caught by SeeDs and not cadets or, even more desirable, McCormick wouldn't have been such a psycho in the first place. Recalling the way the women – SeeDs and cadets alike – had cried quietly or not at all, refusing any comfort for the violations to their bodies and spirits, Seifer wished he hadn't needed to face any of this either.

There was a terrifying revelation beneath all of this that, if it could happen to these women who were strong and independent and capable of protecting themselves... then it could just as easily happen to him.

Still, Seifer had to bite back the urge to bristle at the Detective's words. The instinctual reaction he had to authority was a little worrying; a legacy of being Kramer's 'student' he supposed.

"I wish we hadn't either," Seifer admitted quietly.

"Cadet," Sorrenson said, gathering the sheets back into the file Seifer had brought them in, "have you ever considered becoming a police officer or a federal law enforcement agent?"

"W-what?" Seifer was too startled by the question to say anything else. No profession other than SeeD had ever really crossed his mind. Cadets were geared towards becoming SeeD. There was no career counseling for the uncertain at Garden. If someone wanted to be something – anything – other than SeeD, then they had to do the researching on their own.

"It's obvious that you possess good leadership qualities and have a natural talent for investigation. Your entire team likely does, actually. Someone like you would be an asset to any law enforcement agency."

A smile formed on Seifer's lips. He didn't want to be a cop, but... it was nice to hear praise like this. All he heard at Garden these days were words like 'arrogant,' 'over-confident,' over stepping bounds,' 'uncooperative,' and 'needs to follow orders.' Knowing how poorly Garden was handling its internal affairs, Seifer had been finding it harder and harder to respect the SeeD chain of command. It was so badly broken, Seifer didn't even know where to start in fixing things.

He wasn't even certain he wanted to these days.

After interrupting a conference between Kramer and Galbadia Garden's Headmaster, Seifer had been certain that he'd be expelled. But Kramer had overruled Martine's objections and chalked Seifer's 'enthusiasm' up to misplaced loyalty to his friend, Cadell Minion. Never mind that Minion's rights as a Garden cadet had been denied at every turn by Headmaster Martine and that the evidence had been staring Kramer in the face. If only he'd listened to the girl... but Cadell lost that battle and, had it been up to Martine, Seifer would have been out on his ass alongside her.

Here they were, nearly five months later, and Kramer was probably regretting that decision right about now, but Seifer felt relieved. Whatever the consequences were to him personally, he'd done the right thing and, maybe, found an alternative career to fall back on in the process. It was a start.

It was a really good start, come to think of it.

"I've never really thought about it before," Seifer mused. "I'll have to keep it in mind from now on. I... I've actually failed the SeeD entrance exam twice already."

"You failed it?" The Detective looked appalled. "I can't believe they'd keep you out, but let something like this in." Affixing a photo of McCormick to the front of Seifer's file, Sorrenson scowled. "If they're going to be selective, then they should actually be selective. What are they looking for? Unquestioning automatons who are only in it for the violence?" Shaking his head, Sorrenson sighed. "Sorry. I'm afraid I'm not much of a fan where Garden's concerned.

"Anyway, if you get tired of dealing with their bullshit, then their loss would be our gain. We'll contact you in a day or so to finalize everything before we arrest McCormick. Let us know if he gets sent out on assignment before we have a chance to make the arrest, alright?"

"Of course. But considering he only returned from a mission two days ago, it'll still be at least three more before he receives a new assignment. Garden policy mandates that each SeeD receives a minimum of five days down time between missions." Checking his watch, Seifer pushed away from the desk and stood. "I should be heading back. Curfew is in about an hour and I'll need to be there to help clear out the training center."

Nodding in understanding, Sorrenson led Seifer to the front doors, waving down the Police Chief on the way. Seifer walked out into the night on his own. The sky had gone dark, but the street lights hadn't yet flipped on. Looking up from the foot of the police station steps, Seifer could see the stars in the sky.

Letting out a shaky breath, Seifer felt as though the weight he'd been carrying on his shoulders since first meeting Cadet Amy Jackson was slipping right off. Everything was finally going to be okay. He could go back to concentrating on his schoolwork and spending his free time in the training center or reading a good book. More importantly, Seifer couldn't recall when he'd had his last spar with Leonhart. He'd have to challenge the brunet as soon as possible...

Walking over to the parking lot, Seifer pulled the keys to the Garden car out of his pocket. He'd managed to sign out one of the nicer cars for a change, which bolstered his mood some more. After all, no one would mind if he took the long way back to Garden. Half an hour or forty-five minutes... either way he'd be back before curfew.

There was a loud, familiar cracking noise as Seifer opened the car door. For a few seconds, he couldn't place the noise. He felt numb – disconnected – as he realized it was the sound of a gun going off.

Seifer dropped to the ground, but not out of self-preservation. His left shoulder felt as though it was on fire and the pain made Seifer's thoughts feel sluggish. The shooter – and Seifer had no doubts as to who it might be – had missed Seifer's heart, but that wouldn't matter if he bled out in the police station's parking lot. There weren't exactly that many people inside the station at this time of night and the odds that someone heard the shot weren't good. Balamb was such a sleepy town, despite being so close to a Garden, and there simply wasn't anyone there to help him.

Seifer's right hand fumbled for his cell phone, his one concession to safety for Fujin's sake, but the clunky thing slid from Seifer's hand and skittered just out of reach. Seifer was fading too fast to stretch for it.

_I'm not even eighteen yet._ The thought ran mournfully through Seifer's mind as darkness started edging in on his vision. _I don't want to die. I'm not ready. I... I want a chance to make my dreams come true... to be like the Knights of Centra and make a difference..._

The sounds of a scuffle and loud cursing dimly reached Seifer's ears, but he couldn't make sense of any of it. But he did recognize the blue-gray eyes framed by choppy brown hair that gazed down into his.

"Squall..." Seifer mumbled, oddly hypnotized by the fear in those eyes. Leonhart wasn't supposed to feel fear... was he?

Leonhart was putting pressure on Seifer's wound, though there were others that the blonde couldn't identify in the background. Squall was saying something to him, though, so Seifer strained to listen. It wasn't often, after all, that Squall had something to say to him. Seifer didn't want the opportunity to go to waste.

"Don't you die, Almasy." Squall's voice wavered for a moment. Then, more emphatically, he hissed, "don't you die on me, Seifer! Don't you dare!"

"Didn't... know you... cared... Squall..." Seifer mumbled before everything went black.

* * *

Seifer's shoulder hurt.

The wound was mostly gone, though it would leave behind identical scars on the front and back of his shoulder. The doctors at Balamb's hospital had done a great job with the potions and minor surgery. They deserved a commendation or something; this was probably the worst injury they'd had to deal with in years.

It was too bad they wouldn't get any gratefulness from Seifer any time soon.

"What the hell is your problem?" Squall snapped as soon as the doctor left the room.

Repressing the urge to flinch away from the steely glare in the younger teen's eyes, Seifer growled out, "I didn't ask for your help. You shouldn't have been there."

"You moron!" Squall clenched his hands into fists, visibly shaking with rage. "I saved your life out there because you were too stupid to bring backup! He could have... you could have..." take a few deep breaths, Squall calmed down and the rage he was displaying disappeared beneath a familiar veneer of ice. Seifer almost wished that Squall would give into his anger and do something – anything – if only so that the proof that Squall had feelings would last a little longer.

"Whatever," Squall snarled, his arms crossing over his chest as he turned on his heel and stalked out the door.

Opening his mouth, Seifer almost called Squall back inside. He wanted to thank the other teen, but the words wouldn't come. They stuck in his throat and he sank onto the room's small cot, shaking as regret and realization finally slammed home. He'd never come so close to dying before.

In the silence, Seifer promised himself that he'd fulfill his desire to become a SeeD and Knight before he ever came that close to death again. Nothing less would do...

* * *

"SeeD James McCormick has been taken into custody," Kramer told Seifer. "He will be officially stripped of his rank and dishonorably discharged this afternoon. Tomorrow he will shipped to D-District prison to serve out a life sentence.

"The evidence of his crimes has been retrieved from the Balamb Police, who have conceded the right for Garden to police our own."

"So you're just sweeping this away, like it never happened," Seifer observed quietly. "McCormick's just going to be disappeared from Garden with no trial and no trace. BPD is letting you do it in the name of continued good relations between Balamb and Garden, I'm sure. All for the good of Garden's public relations, right? Because if word got out that Garden didn't actually screen candidates on psychological grounds, the way real militaries do, the public might be a little put out at the idea there might be other rapists and psychopaths hiding amongst our ranks and using their status as SeeD to get away with their crimes."

"You're not SeeD," Kramer snapped. "You don't understand what we're fighting for..."

"SeeD are mercenaries; the whole 'fighting for money' thing is pretty damn obvious..."

"Silence! Cadet, you are out of line!" Kramer slammed his hands on the desk. "Stand at attention, cadet."

Resentment in his eyes, Seifer came to attention.

"If you intend to remain at Garden, then you will never speak of this incident again. Is that clear, cadet?"

"Crystal, sir."

"Should you talk about this with anyone who does not already know the particulars, you will be immediately suspended pending a personal review by me. If I feel it necessary, I will expel you, Cadet Almasy."

"..." It was on the tip of Seifer's tongue to tell Kramer that he didn't give a shit if he got expelled from Garden – he'd fucking sue the place and really screw up Kramer's precious public relations – but for some reason Matron came to mind. "I want to see Matron." Seifer smirked at the sharp sound of Kramer's surprise. "Thought I'd forgotten her because of the GFs, right? Well I haven't. She's the closest I've got to a mother and after an incident like this, you're supposed to alert the cadet's family. My silence on this matter is clearly contingent upon whether or not I even give a damn about staying at Garden and I want to talk to Matron before I make that decision. So bring her here."

Kramer's eyes widened in a sudden flurry of worry and Seifer wondered if he'd just made the magic demand. Matron likely had no idea what was going on at Garden; she'd never have allowed things to get this bad if she'd known even a third of it.

Once Matron knew what was going on, she'd fix things.

"I'll bring her here," Kramer conceded. "It might take a week or so."

"Then I'll wait until then before I make my decision."

All Seifer had to do was wait a few weeks and then everything would start to be okay again. He just had to be patient.

So why did he have this foreboding feeling in his chest?

A/N - Poor Seifer; seems he's starting to learn that every time something good happens, the other shoe drops shortly afterwards. We're cruel, cruel authoresses. Fortunately for him, we intend to give him a sexy, sexy Squall as a present. ^_~


	7. Chapter 6

Disclaimer - If FF8 were a butterfly, it would always evade my net.

A/N - This was a difficult chapter to revamp... in part because it's one of the longest chapters in the story but mostly because of the battle. Kit and I suck at writing fight scenes. We accept this as a fact, though we'd like to think there's been some improvement here over the original, even if it's only a tiny improvement.

_Chapter Six_

"I should have killed him when I had the chance," Squall growled out, his hands clenching into fists and a look of pure hatred briefly flashing across his face.

Personally, Seifer thought Squall looked kind of sexy that way. Well... not just 'kind of sexy' but 'incredibly fuck-able.' Swallowing and putting his mind back on topic – psycho, serial rapist/attempted murderer on the loose while they were trying to assassinate a Sorceress – Seifer took a few deep breaths and added the second thing that he knew Squall wouldn't like. "I don't think it's a coincidence that he's here instead of D-District when there's a Sorceress in town."

"You think he might be her Knight?" Squall asked.

The question hung in the air for a long moment and then, reluctantly, Seifer nodded. "There's no proof, but we both thought Caraway was holding something out on us. This could be it."

Stepping forward slightly, Quistis spoke up. "It could also be that McCormick simply managed to find a loophole in his sentence that allowed him out of jail. It's bad timing that it happened now and terrible that it happened at all, but this subject is sidetracking up from our mission."

"D-District is where they send people who are meant to be forgotten. You don't simply get out on a loophole." The way Squall inflected his words, Seifer got the impression that only years of well-practiced self-control was keeping Squall from marching out into the city and simply disposing of McCormick. "It doesn't matter whether or not he's Sorceress Edea's Knight. Our target remains the same. Just... be prepared for the possibility of having to fight him regardless of whether Irvine shoots her or not."

Seifer nodded sharply. The only thing keeping him in check at the moment was the certainty that he'd be meeting up with McCormick that evening on the Sorceress' float. Self-control had little to do with the preternatural calm that settled upon him. He remembered killing McCormick once before – mere hours before torturing Squall in D-District. The memory sat heavily in Seifer's mind and he found that he couldn't take pride in it. McCormick had been unarmed and, even as he'd lay dying, he taunted Seifer by telling him that he was becoming a monster.

At the time, Seifer had scoffed at the thought and then marched off to play the part of the dutiful Knight, tasked with torturing information out of his long-time rival. He could see the irony in it now... the painful truth that McCormick had been right and it was Squall who called him on it time and again.

This time, however, things would be different. McCormick was free and armed; he was already stalking a new victim. If they were lucky, McCormick would be the only one to die that night. The evil inside McCormick would die with him.

If Edea died, however, then her magic would jump hosts – as would Ultimecia. Considering the crowd that would be gathered for the parade, the magic would likely be drawn to multiple hosts. Ultimecia would have her choice of Sorceresses to possess, each of varying degrees of power, and there would be no telling just which one she would choose until she elevated her latest victim into a position of prominence.

If Headmaster Kramer knew anything about Ultimecia at all, then there was no way these orders could have originated with him. Kramer was an idiot, to be sure, but this took stupidity to a whole new level.

Unfortunately, this meant NORG was likely the culprit behind the orders and there was no telling what NORG thought was really going on. The Garden Master was so paranoid and greedy, he probably thought the Kramers were taking over Galbadia together in some over-elaborate scheme to kill NORG and steal his money.

Resisting the urge to bang his head against the wall, since it would mean he'd have to explain everything to Squall (at the very least) and he didn't want to sound like a crazy person, Seifer kept his mouth shut and quietly led his team back out to finish scouting the area.

* * *

Around three, they gathered back at the hotel again to find Rinoa had already returned. She had a bracelet on her wrist that Seifer was suspicious of; it looked familiar but he wasn't certain where he'd seen it before. Offering a halfway sincere apology to Squall, Rinoa managed to get back into the group's general good graces despite the way she'd stomped off like a five-year-old earlier.

They all agreed to spend the rest of the day holed up in the hotel in order to stay out of McCormick's sight. If he recognized even one of them, their cover would be blown. The girls wound up back in their room and Irvine and Zell left with them. Left alone in the hotel room with Squall, Seifer felt all the regrets he'd harbored six months earlier come rushing back.

Seifer could clearly recall the way Squall had looked at him as he'd lain bleeding all over the parking lot, staining the asphalt. There had been fear in Squall's eyes: worry and horror, too. Squall Leonhart did not look scared for anyone, yet that night he'd clearly felt afraid for Seifer. That alone had terrified Seifer when he'd awoken in the hospital. The hospital workers could have attempted to drill the concept of his near-death experience into his head and failed utterly had it not been for the memory of Squall's expression. What should have been a moment of triumph over both McCormick and Kramer had been transformed into a nightmare. Seifer's life flipped upside down and he gave into the knee-jerk reaction to be an ass to everyone around him.

It was a reaction that hadn't dulled until some three weeks earlier when he'd been sick... or, rather, got sent back in time from the moment of his actual death.

Strange, really, how things worked out.

"Squall..."

"Hmm?"

Seifer had been gazing out the window, but he turned now to ensure that he had Squall's attention. "That night... when McCormick nearly killed me... I was an ass to you afterwards. I was freaked out, but I shouldn't have taken it out on you." It wasn't really an apology, but Seifer doubted Squall had ever expected to receive even this much from him about it. Seifer actually wanted to apologize properly, but the words felt inadequate and stuck in his throat, refusing to let him verbalize them.

Eyes widening, Squall attempted to give an uncaring shrug. "It's fine."

The silence returned, but with an awkwardness that itched at Seifer. He had no idea what to say – though there were so many questions Seifer wanted to ask.

_Why did you follow me into town that night? Why do you keep saving me? Why... _

_Why can't I get you out of my head?_

Seifer kept telling himself all he was feeling was a crush, but it was like he was hoping that if he thought it enough times then he'd finally believe. Were crushes really like this, though? He knew what those were like – more lust than emotional connection and more idealized images than acceptance of reality. Though Seifer's feelings for Squall were most certainly lustful, he was as much attracted to Squall's personality as he was to the brunet's tight ass and beautiful eyes.

"Just... don't ever act that way again, okay?"

"Huh?" Seifer gave Squall a startled look. "I hate to break it to you, Squall, but acting like an ass is my default setting."

"No... I mean..." Squall appeared frustrated and grew silent.

"I'm not telepathic, Squall. I thought we'd established that I can't hear your thoughts unless you speak them."

Squall's eyes grew distinctly annoyed. "You acted like it didn't matter to you whether you lived or died. Don't ever act that way again."

Relaxing, Seifer flashed Squall a grin. "I won't. I promise."

* * *

While Squall gave everyone a last minute pep-talk – which was more talk than pep – Seifer pulled Rinoa aside.

"It took me a while to place that bracelet you're wearing but I've seen pictures of magic inhibiting devices before. That's one of Odine's bangles; supposedly there were about... oh, I don't know, 19 that were misplaced after the last war?"

"I just thought it was cute," Rinoa told him nervously, trying to play dumb.

"It cuts off a person's ability to use magic, but only if they're junctioned. It's like a personal anti-magic field. Galbadian armor has been designed to counteract the bangle's effects and it's hit-or-miss when it comes to blue witches. What makes you think it could possibly work on a Sorceress?"

"It might... if she's not that powerful, then it might work," Rinoa insisted.

Seifer shook his head slowly. "It isn't likely. Rinoa... if you take that to the Sorceress before the parade starts, then there won't be anyone to save you if something goes wrong."

"I'm not some damsel in distress! I don't need some big, tough mercenary to swoop in and save me all the time," Rinoa hissed.

Seifer laughed at her indignation. "No, you're not a damsel needing to be rescued. You're a wanted terrorist. You're also not my client; you're Squall's. So if your plan fails, I probably won't even notice."

Rinoa sighed and nodded. "I get what you're trying to tell me. I'm not your mission. I'm not your girlfriend. I'm not anything."

"You're my friend," Seifer corrected gently. Then, with a smirk, he added, "an irritating, kind of idiotic friend, but I try not to judge."

"You're an ass."

"So I'm told."

Sighing sadly, Rinoa gave him a wry look. "You really don't love me like I love you."

"You don't love me, Rinoa. You love the idea of love." Seifer gave her his best 'don't bullshit me' stare.

Wilting a little further, Rinoa nodded. "Maybe."

Moving back over to the group, Seifer caught the tail end of Squall's instructions. "If the assassination attempt fails on all fronts, we're to regroup in the alley behind the hotel. Having two plans in effect increases our chances of taking out the Sorceress, but we have no idea what abilities the Sorceress has in addition to the magic we're capable of. No one has ever prepared us for the eventuality of fighting a Sorceress, but I know I can count on all of you to do your best. We're all Garden trained."

"And that makes us super-special-awesome!" Selphie declared with a grin. Squall nodded, his eyes sparking in amusement and his lips twitching as though to ward off a smile.

"Any last questions?" There was silence and Squall turned to Rinoa. "Are you staying here or at your father's?"

"I'll be here," she promised, clearly lying through her teeth. "If you guys aren't back by eleven... er... twenty-three-hundred, I'll go to the back alley. Otherwise, I'll just watch from the parade from the balcony... or maybe the TV coverage."

Squall rolled his eyes, but didn't call her on the lie. "Let's head out," he told the rest of them. Leading the way out of the hotel room, Squall waited for the door to shut before asking Seifer what he'd told Rinoa.

"Since, as always, Rinoa intends to do whatever the hell she wants to, I told her that, when her plan fails, there won't be a safety net to catch her this time. I just wanted to make sure she knew that her odds of getting rescued are pretty slim but we're not going to stop her from screwing up either."

"I don't like it," Squall grumbled.

Shrugging, Seifer said, "well, it wasn't like I could just tie her to a chair for the evening." Seeing the speculative gleam in Squall's eyes, he protested, "no, we're not going back to tie her to a chair. Just think of all the lewd remarks you'd have to hear from Irvine tonight if you do. There's no way to win this, Squall, but I'm pretty certain that it'd be worse if you had to listen to 'kinky' cowboy jokes all night."

"..." Squall sighed and gave an affirmative nod. He scowled a little more deeply in displeasure as they split up to lead their respective teams out of the hotel.

* * *

"Normally, I love getting to say 'I told you so,' but in this case..." Seifer trailed off, gesturing to the window where the quartet could finally see the Sorceress. After having listened to her rambling, confusing speech (admittedly, Seifer understood it a little better this time, but it sounded a points like Ultimecia had forgotten just what time period she was in; the crowd reactions gave away when she killed the president) without being able to see her, it was nice to get a good view of Matron. Seifer cringed a little at the weird... he hesitated to call it a hat, but there wasn't any better word for it. Her super-long fingernails in the gloves... that was pretty out-there too.

Recalling how he hadn't found any of this strange in the last time line was pretty worrying to Seifer. Just what had she done to him in that other life anyway?

"She just murdered the President of Galbadia in front of what is basically everyone in the city and now she's showing off her rapist Knight, much to the joy of the common folk. I hate this country." The indignation he felt at the sight of McCormick kept Seifer focused on the present, letting him push aside his questions about his other life.

Zell snorted softly in what might have been morbid amusement. "This must be why Balamb Garden avoids taking Galbadian missions," he speculated.

"You two should get away from the window," Quistis admonished. "Someone might notice you."

"Everyone's too focused on the Sorceress to do anything other than fawn over her. They're not going to notice two blond guys lurking in the darkened window of the gate's control room," Seifer responded, though Zell backed off. "Chicken-wuss," Seifer muttered, ignoring the irate shadow boxing that met his comment. Turning away from the window with a huff, Seifer frowned darkly at the sound of cheering outside.

He remembered the distinct rush of pleasure he'd felt when he'd been on the float, feeling as though he was as much the person being cheered for as Edea was. He'd felt wanted – needed – in a way that he'd never experienced before. He'd been so naïve, thinking that what he felt was real. The crowd's adulation turned to hatred the moment Ultimecia's true colors shined through.

This time, however, it was McCormick who received the crowd's adoration, stood at the Sorceress' side, and was hailed as a Knight. Despite not wanting to be manipulated again, Seifer felt just a little jealous. Besides, McCormick being a Knight was a complete joke. Knights were supposed to be chivalrous and McCormick was anything but. Though, it wasn't really possible to be a proper Knight and be Ultimecia's Knight, was it? Not that it mattered. McCormick wouldn't last long in his new found position; Seifer would assure that personally.

Shaking his head a little, Seifer leaned against the wall beside the window – just barely out of sight – and listened halfheartedly as his team chattered about random things. Quistis was worried about Rinoa's feelings being bruised. Selphie hoped that Irvine wouldn't psych himself out since he was 'sensitive.' Zell just wanted the parade to finish.

"You okay, Seifer?" Selphie asked, moving to stand in front of him. She couldn't quite manage to stand still, however, and she bounced lightly as she grinned up at him.

"Yeah, why?"

"You look unhappy... brood-y," she declared, adding observantly, "you scowl more when Squall isn't around. He's happier around you too, I think. But then, I guess the two of you have been friends for a long time."

"Not really. We fight more than anything," Seifer told her.

"Huh. I haven't seen it yet."

"You will," Seifer predicted with a morose shrug. "Whatever the reason, Squall's gotten talkative around me. It won't last, though. He'll forget his reasons and go back to being his usual, introverted self."

"What do you mean about him forgetting?" Zell asked, having been following the conversation.

Seifer shrugged, but Quistis spoke up. "You mean the GFs, don't you? They make us forget things."

"More than you'd think," Seifer agreed. Turning to the window again, he changed the subject. "It's almost time. Think Squall and Kinneas are in place yet?"

"Of course they are," Quistis responded archly.

Silence descended on the group as they waited for the float to pass under the gate. It was moments like this when he missed the feel of the scar on his forehead and the matching scar that had run between Squall's eyes. Scarring up Squall on the day of the exams wouldn't have earned him any points with Quistis – and Hyne knew he'd needed to be on her good side that day – but he missed his scar all the same. He'd developed a habit during the war of running his fingers over the scar whenever things got stressful or he over thought his situation. Without the scar there, Seifer wasn't sure he could calm himself properly.

Taking note of the time, Seifer gestured for Quistis to stand by the switch and wait for his signal. The float was passing under the front entrance of the gate and the clock tower was lowering, the carousel clock rising in it's place. Irvine had to take his shot now or risk the closing of the gate alerting the Sorceress to the danger she was in.

Everything seemed to happen at once. Seifer heard what could only be the sound of a gunshot ricocheting off a Protect shield and an inhuman shriek of displeasure. Giving Quistis the go-ahead, the gates dropped into place. Seifer was barely aware of climbing down to the ground floor, but the next thing he knew he was at the door, trying to yank it open. Magic singed his hands, however, as two elementals slithered in through the keyhole and from under the door. The creatures took the form of large snakes: one made of fire and the other of ice.

"Shit!" Zell exclaimed. "What the hell are those things?"

"Elementals," Quistis told him. "They're beings made of pure magic. The Sorceress must have had them on the float to protect her from anyone who might mean her harm."

"How'd they know to come here, though?" Selphie asked as they all readied their weapons while watching the creatures warily.

"They're drawn to magic. The four of us are the second highest concentration of magic in the area, since we're all junctioned," Seifer theorized. "I don't think they intend to let us leave. We're going to have to fight our way out. Selphie," Seifer turned to the copper haired SeeD, "I want you to head back upstairs; there's a ladder outside the window that's meant as a fire-escape. Get the door open from the other side, okay?"

"Aye, sir." Selphie snapped off a salute and then scurried back up the ladder.

"Trepe, what do you remember about how to kill elementals?"

"They're strong against physical attacks since their bodies are merely constructs. They can be annihilated if exposed to enough magic of the opposite type."

Seifer nodded; he'd figured that would be the case, but it never hurt to double check. "Alright, then this is a magic only fight; I'm sure the two of you can figure out what spells to use on which elemental. Trepe, stick to the fire elemental; Dincht, I want you fighting the ice elemental."

The duo saluted and turned to carry out their orders. While they started their magical attacks, Seifer waited for Dincht to move out of the way before unleashing a Fire Cross attack on the snake-like ice-elemental. He smirked in satisfaction as the creature sizzled and began to melt, leaving a visible trail of water on the floor. It wasn't beaten yet, though. It lunged at Seifer, though he deflected the attack with the flat of his blade, stumbling back a step in surprise at just how much force the creature was able to put into it's attack.

The fire-snake had managed to singe Quistis' hair on the ends and she was drowning it in frustration, attacking it with a combination of water and ice magic with more speed behind her attacks than Seifer expected. It rather looked like Quistis might be able to finish off her monster before Seifer and Zell finished with theirs.

With his competitive spirit roused, Seifer doubled his efforts to melt the elemental. Of course, that was when the door was yanked open from the outside, revealing Selphie. She grinned and then froze as the two elementals turned to face her. "Oh crap," she swore right as the two things rammed into her.

Seifer didn't hesitate to charge through the opening and into the cramped space created by the wall and the float. He wasn't even certain he was using his junctioned Guardian Force – Alexander – as he slammed a fire spell into the ice elemental. It wasn't like any fire spell he had stocked, though; the flames ran through the snake-like form as though they were scouring it, melting it from the inside in a matter of seconds.

Selphie had already sprung to her feet, speed casting blizzards on the remaining elemental. It fizzled out more slowly than it's frozen counterpart, but it's death was still fairly quick. Reaching up, Selphie ignored the water that was seeping into her dress and the stench of smoke in the air as she grabbed onto Seifer's arm and allowed herself to be hauled to her feet.

Beaming, Selphie declared, "that was fun."

"Are you okay?"

"Yeah. I'm fine. What was that spell you did? I've never seen anything like it?"

Shrugging, Seifer didn't answer the question; he wasn't exactly sure what to say, after all. He'd been able to call on fire magic while unjunctioned before, but he'd never been able to cast anything like that. With Alexander junctioned, he should have only been able to use the spells he had in stock, yet somehow... Seifer turned to the control room doorway and shook off his unease.

He could figure out what it meant later. They had a job to do.

"You two coming?" he asked, seeing his fellow blonds still standing just beyond the doorway.

"We can't." Quistis flicked her whip towards the doorway only for it to rebound against a red field of energy that briefly crackled to life in response to her attack. "Zell, go check the upstairs window. I'll see if the sewer access point has been affected. We'll join up with you two when we can."

Zell nodded sharply and hurried away from the doorway.

"The Sorceress seems pretty determined not to deal with us," Seifer observed quietly. "Selphie, you and I are going to have to take her on by ourselves for now. Trepe... by the time you and Dincht are able to join us, if things have gone bad... get out."

"Seifer..."

"That's an order."

Quistis smiled at him sadly and nodded. "You really are a good SeeD," she told him and then spun away.

"Think they'll be okay?" Selphie asked.

"I think they're safer than we are right now," Seifer responded gently.

The gate closest to the palace shuddered under an impact and Seifer turned to see Squall jump out of a convertible that he'd apparently crashed sideways against the bars. Easily slipping into the gateway, Squall sprinted over to them. "Why aren't you up on the float yet?"

Tapping the barrier on the doorway with the tip of Hyperion before sheathing it, Seifer told him, "technical difficulties."

Zell came back down from the second floor. "The window's covered too."

"So's the sewer access," Quistis chimed in, walking back into view. "We'll get this barrier down and join you three shortly."

"Remember what I said," Seifer told her.

Quistis bobbed her head in agreement. "Of course. Now go."

The float was a purple and silver monstrosity made of plastic, paper mache, and LED lights mounted on a remote controlled truck. Fortunately it had good spacing for handholds and the three SeeD were able to scramble quickly up to the top where Edea and McCormick were waiting. It was also rather convenient that whoever had been controlling the float had let it stop once the gates went down. Seifer had no doubt that, had the truck been revving it's engine in some futile attempt to knock down the gates, the three SeeD would have found the short climb to the top more than a little difficult.

Hauling himself atop the float and then scrambling to his feet, Seifer felt his stomach lurch as he came face to face with McCormick. There was a smirk lighting up the bastard's face as he eyed Selphie's short, wet dress. "Aww, Almasy, you shouldn't have," he drawled, waving the gun in his right hand towards Selphie. "Trying to make up for sending me to D-District by bringing me such an exquisite present? I wonder how much it'll take to make her scream for me."

"Son of a bitch," Seifer snarled at the same moment Squall stepped forward, growling the words "sick bastard." They each drew their gunblades, placing themselves between McCormick and Selphie.

"It speaks," McCormick trilled in mock delight. "Now tell me, what gender are you, anyway?" From someone else, Seifer might have found the question funny. From McCormick, however... "You're just enough like a woman that maybe toying with you wouldn't be a waste of time. I could let you watch, if you'd like, Almasy. You strike me as the voyeuristic type, after all; not willing to stand back and pretend nothing's happening when there's a chance you can get off too."

Tightening his grip on Hyperion, Seifer's gaze flicked to Squall to meet the brunet's steel-colored eyes. In the face of a hated enemy, all the blue had drained from Squall's irises, leaving behind a determination to win... and a signal to move _now_.

Rushing McCormick, Seifer cast Protect on himself so that he wouldn't have to worry about the close range shots that were headed for him. The bullets ricocheted off his shield, but he didn't worry about who they might hit. He doubted there was a person on that float who wasn't protected by magic. His assumption was proven right, at least where McCormick was concerned, when Hyperion glanced off the ex-SeeD's own Protect.

Recoiling slightly, Seifer narrowed his eyes and considered his option for a moment. Protect didn't just reflect attacks; when properly cast, Protect could hurt a careless attacker by rebounding the energy they expended back at them. Magic could penetrate it, but Shell was the counterpart to Protect meant to remedy that defensive hole. When the two spells overlapped, however... they grew weak to combined attacks.

Seifer didn't know if McCormick had cast Shell already, but it was a safe bet that he had. Latching onto one of the Firagas he had stocked within him, Seifer poured the flames into Hyperion and, without hesitation, launched himself at McCormick. A fiery cross burned in the air around him as he slammed into McCormick's shield for a second and then the magic buckled under the onslaught. Though most of the force and magic of Seifer's attack had bled away when the shield came down, enough remained to scorch McCormick's clothes and leave a bloody slice across his chest.

That was enough to put a smirk on Seifer's face while McCormick's expression morphed from cocky to pissed off.

Squall and Selphie were already attacking the Sorceress, but Seifer payed them only enough attention to keep the two fights from intersecting. McCormick's connection to the Sorceress was weak; McCormick had no love for women – Hyne alone knew what the man's true thoughts about his opposite gender were – and Seifer had no doubt that the only respect McCormick held for Ultimecia was for her command of magic. So long as he was distracted by Seifer, McCormick wouldn't think to fight in tandem with the Sorceress.

Divided they would fall, or so Seifer hoped.

Firing a few more shots off of Seifer's Protect shield, and ducking to avoid the ricochets, McCormick feinted and rolled out of the way, exchanging his guns for a collapsible sword and casting a new Protect as he returned to his feet. He fell into a defensive stance, smirking at Seifer as if to say 'mine's longer.'

The expression on Seifer's face drew into an almost feral smile. He much preferred sparring with Squall, but cutting McCormick down to size before gutting the bastard sounded like such fun at that moment.

Unfortunately, that was the moment Ultimecia had enough of the SeeDs attacking her. There was a familiar sound, like ice cracking on a frozen lake. Both Seifer and McCormick turned to face the Sorceress as long icicles floated around her, bobbing in breeze.

She saw Seifer for the first time and smiled. "My true Knight," she crooned. Flinging her hands in a negligent gesture, her icicles lanced towards Squall.

Selphie dove to the right and Squall moved towards the left, dodging two of the sharp shards. He wasn't so lucky with the third; it struck him in the shoulder, lodging itself there. Squall teetered for a few moments, shock clouding his eyes and causing visible bewilderment on his face. Unbalanced, Squall lost his footing and fell off the ledge to the ground below.

Ultimecia was laughing with Edea's voice and Selphie was screaming, but it all sounded so far away to Seifer. Squall needed him now.

Seifer didn't really recall moving forward, parrying McCormick's attempts to block him, or breaking past the ex-SeeD's Protect a second time. The next thing he was completely aware of after watching Squall fall from the float was the way Hyperion felt in his hands as it pierced McCormick's chest, carving through bone and likely a lung as well.

Coughing up blood, McCormick opened his mouth as if to speak, but Seifer pulled Hyperion's trigger. He watched as the other man was blasted off the float and into the far wall. He didn't bother to stay to see McCormick crumple to the ground like a broken doll; there was no surviving that attack and Seifer had more pressing matters to attend to.

Ultimecia was already gone, however.

"What the hell?" Selphie exclaimed. "She... she walked through the back of the float and she's just gone!"

"What do you mean?" Seifer responded, only paying her half the attention she really deserved. He was already headed to where Squall had fallen from the float.

"The back of the float went all wavy, like it wasn't really solid or something, and she just walked through it."

"Then she's gone and our mission failed. Time to regroup and get the hell out of Deling," Seifer declared, moving to descend the float. He only climbed down a few steps before jumping the rest of the way. The impact jarred his legs, but he didn't fall on his ass so he counted it as a win.

Dropping to his knees beside Squall, Seifer inspected the wound. Despite the ice that had been shoved into Squall's right shoulder, Squall was still breathing shallowly. There was a puddle of water and blood beneath the brunet but, as far as Seifer could tell, the ice didn't go all the way through Squall's shoulder. It was a bad wound, but the ice was slowing the blood flow which Seifer hoped was a good thing. He wasn't a field medic, though. He did know, however, that the way Squall was shivering was a very bad sign.

"Selphie. Curaga on three," Seifer told her, grabbing hold of the ice spear. "One... two... three..." he pulled the ice out, Squall's body jerking in a pained response. Selphie's unique multicast ability had kicked in as well, So Squall was hit with three of the high-powered healing spells.

The wound on Squall's shoulder visibly shrank, though the rips in his shirt were clearly permanent. At least the jacket had been missed.

"He'll be fine," Seifer assured Selphie, though the words were as much for his own benefit as they were for Selphie's. "We need to get him out of here before any soldiers show up... or the Sorceress comes back. At least McCormick's dead." Seifer shook his head ruefully. "We had no idea what we were doing here."

Seifer shook Squall, trying to get him to wake, but the brunet just groaned in pain, his eyes not giving any indication of opening anytime soon. Sighing, Seifer scrambled to think of a plan. "Selphie, go join Trepe and Dincht. Take Squall's gunblade with you; I can't handle two gunblades and carry Squall all at the same time. We'll rendezvous in the back alley as agreed, alright?"

She wanted to protest. Seifer could see it in Selphie's eyes; she didn't want to leave them behind, but she knew this was the best plan. It wasn't a good one, but it was all they could do. "Aye, sir," she told him, saluting crisply before grabbing Revolver and darting away.

After casting a Cura on Squall, Seifer carefully picked up the brunet and struggled to his feet. Squall was lighter than Seifer had expected, but he suspected that had a little something to do with the adrenaline running through his system. Edging past McCormick's corpse, Seifer approached the gate, wondering just how the hell he was going to manage getting both himself and Squall through the slender space between the bars. Reluctantly, Seifer slid Squall through first, placing the lithe teen on the ground and then squeezing through himself.

Retrieving Squall, Seifer escaped into the pandemonium beyond the gate. He hadn't really been paying attention before, but it was as though Irvine's gunshot and the fall of the gates had awakened everyone to the fact that Deling had been murdered before their very eyes and to the sound of their cheers. Confused and disturbed by what had occurred, the crowd had turned into a mob. There were soldiers everywhere, trying to restore order, but none took notice of the tall blond man carrying a wounded brunet away from the gate house. They were more concerned with the group trying to set cars on fire down the street and the crazy guy shooting bullets up in the air.

Winding his way through the crowds, Seifer did his best to stick to the shadows. He was headed in the general direction of the hotel, but that had less to do with the rendezvous and more to do with the fact that there were fewer people in that direction. He hoped that the others would be there; getting Squall to safety would go a lot smoother if the brunet woke up with his gunblade back with him.

If Seifer lost both Selphie and the Revolver... he suspected Squall would turn manic and strangle him.

"Seifer!"

Starting slightly at the sound of his name, Seifer turned towards the speaker. "Minion?" he asked worriedly, hoping he'd recognized the voice correctly.

"Yeah, it's me," she responded. Her dark, almost navy hair was chin length, a major change from the waist long hair she'd sported the last time he'd seen her. Yet there was no mistaking the young woman and Seifer felt rather relieved to know she was alright amidst the riots. Cadell smiled at him, glancing at the unconscious brunet in Seifer's arms. "So... can I assume this," she waved her hands about negligently, "has a little something to do with you?"

"I'm not at liberty to say," Seifer told her, knowing full well she'd take that as a yes. "I need to get him out of here," he added, glancing down at Squall.

"Need some backup?"

Seifer sighed and nodded unhappily. He didn't want to get Minion involved in this, but he knew her type. There was no convincing her to just go on her merry way until she knew he'd be okay on his own. "Don't make a scene; I don't want us to be memorable. No magic, Cadell," he specified for emphasis.

"Oh, fine." Seifer could hear her disappointment as the magic that buzzed on her fingertips died off. "So, did you see what the Sorceress did to Deling?"

"I didn't have a good vantage point, but I know she killed him." Seifer adjusted his grip on Squall as he let Minion lead the way.

"I can't decide if she should be arrested or awarded a medal," Minion declared, grinning with almost morbid glee. Seifer hoped it was a leftover from whatever spell the Sorceress had used to charm the crowd. "After all, the tyrant's dead. That's a good thing, right?"

"It's only good if his replacement isn't worse," Seifer told her. "This one should be arrested." Ignoring the surprised look Minion gave him, he edged into the alleyway and headed for the hotel. The alley, unlike the street, was empty; it looked like he was going to be the first one to arrive after all. Hopefully that didn't mean Quistis had gotten the others lost in the sewers. It worried him that Irvine and Rinoa weren't there, though. "I need to wait here for the rest of my... friends, Minion. I know you're concerned, but you need to head out."

"Your friend is hurt pretty bad, Seifer," Cadell protested. "Until the others get here, you should have at least a little backup."

"We'll be fine," Seifer protested, looking for a good place to put Squall. The 'lighter than expected' effect was wearing off; the brunet was starting to feel heavy in his arms.

"Don't be so macho," Minion huffed. "You always act like you need to do everything all by yourself, but it wouldn't kill you to accept help every once in a while."

"It could get you hurt if they connect you to me." Seifer set Squall down on a relatively clean looking section of ground behind the hotel. The man-hole entrance to the sewer was a few feet away, so it seemed to be the ideal spot to wait. Taking a moment to inspect Squall's wound, Seifer winced; it still looked bad.

"Is he gonna be okay?"

"Yeah." Seifer didn't know if he was lying or not. Squall had survived this in the other reality, but then he'd been whisked away by the Sorceress' soldiers and healed with magic – more magic than was strictly safe, actually – so that he'd be well enough for interrogating.

Seifer didn't want to overdo the magic on Squall, but he couldn't risk the wound getting infected or worse... pulling out a potion, Seifer poured it on the wound, watching in relief as it immediately grew a little more healthy looking. The potion would take care of any risk of infection for the moment, and if Seifer waited for an hour or so, it'd probably be safe enough to use a few more Cures.

There was a grating noise as the manhole cover started to lift. Hand hovering over his gunblade, ready to draw it any second, Seifer stood and placed himself between Squall and the potential danger. Minion came to stand beside him, her stilettos firmly in hand.

Quistis' head popped out of the dark hole as the cover finished sliding aside; Seifer breathed out a sigh of relief. "Trepe... Dincht and Tilmitt are with you, right?"

"Affirmative," Quistis confirmed, hoisting herself out of the hole. "We got away clean." She eyed Minion warily as she helped Zell and Selphie clamber out after her. They had to hand up Squall's Revolver, but it seemed to be in good condition.

"This is Cadell Minion," Seifer introduced the raven haired girl to the group. "I've known her about two years; she used to be a cadet at Galbadia Garden." Giving Cadell an irritated look, Seifer hoped that she'd run off to safety now that she knew he'd be okay.

Stowing away her weapons, Minion kept her eyes on Quistis. "I don't have many friends, Seifer. You can't blame me for wanting to see you safe." Striding forward, Cadell took Quistis' right hand in her left and brought it up, her face leaning down so that she could drop a kiss on Quistis' knuckles. "Quistis Trepe, I presume?"

A faint blush appeared on Quistis' cheeks. "Y-yes..."

"Even in Galbadia Garden we've heard of the SeeD prodigy, Quistis Trepe," Minion told her, still holding her hand. "The stories speak of your keen intelligence and prowess with a whip , but they never mentioned how devastatingly gorgeous you are."

Selphie giggled softly and then smacked Zell, who was staring at the two women with his mouth hanging open in shock. Seifer rolled his eyes and muttered, "laying it on a bit thick, eh Minion?"

"Shut up, Almasy," Cadell hissed, glancing back at him a moment before returning her attention to Quistis. "The next time you're in Deling City, call me. I'll give you a tour of the city you'll never forget. Seifer can give you my number... and my email address." Reluctantly releasing Quistis' hand, Minion took a few steps backwards, towards the alley's exit. "Now... as far as anyone needs to know, I wasn't here... I saw nothing... I didn't even get up this morning." Winking outrageously, Cadell turned and raced off into the dark.

"She's... uh..." Quistis trailed off uncertainly.

"Was she flirting with you?" Zell asked, sounding just as dazed as Quistis looked.

"She was flirting with Trepe," Seifer confirmed, snickering quietly. "Quite shamelessly too. It's always interesting when Minion shows up. Now, we need to get out of the city," he said, changing the subject. "We'll need to get a car and renting is going to take too long. The nice thing about the riot, however, is that no one will miss a car if we steal one.

"There's a place not far from the city – about a forty-five minute drive – called the Tomb of the Unknown King. It's an archeological dig under Garden jurisdiction, due to the large number of monsters that congregate inside the ruins there; supposedly they're drawn there by GFs hiding in the tomb. If we go there, legally Galbadia can't touch us... assuming even know who they're looking for."

Pausing a moment, Seifer added, "we'll give Kinneas and Rinoa another half-hour to regroup with us, but then we need to get out of here. If they don't show up tonight, we'll send someone back to look for them tomorrow. Anyone want to add anything?" he asked, more to give Quistis a chance to fill in something he may have overlooked than because he thought Selphie or Zell had any ideas to add. Squall, of course, had nothing to say since he was still unconscious.

"I think you covered everything," Quistis told him, sounding relieved. "Are you sure Rinoa isn't just up in the hotel rooms? I could go check..."

"Trust me, she left not long after we did." Seifer shrugged and took a seat beside Squall. There was no way Rinoa would have changed her mind and stayed out of things, so she had to be running around out in the riot somewhere, preferably with Irvine watching out for her. As long as the two of them didn't get caught, they'd all be safe for the night.

At least, that was what Seifer kept trying to tell himself.


	8. Chapter 7

Disclaimer - I had a dream where Kit and I were the owners of FF8. The official artwork for the game included Seifer and Squall making out in the flower field. I was sad when I woke up to find the dream wasn't real.

A/N - I hated this chapter the first time around. I kind of like it now. I'm not really sure why...

_Chapter Seven _

Seifer woke slowly, fuzzy confusion and panic warring inside him even as he lay still. He was on the floor somewhere, the metal uneven under his cheek. His head ached, the pain worsening as he tried to discern his location.

He remembered planning his team's escape from Deling and the car ride to the Tomb of the Unknown King. Everything after that was splintered in his mind, though. Forcing himself to sit up, Seifer slowly opened his eyes and took in his surroundings. Unsurprised, he recognized the walls of D-District prison.

Clearly he'd lost a great deal of time. Seifer tried not to feel disturbed by the realization, but the nauseous feeling simmering at the pit stomach made it difficult to concentrate on anything other than his less than healthy physical state and the disquieting sensation of not knowing how it happened.

A fragment of a memory flashed through Seifer's mind.

"_Selphie, get out of here!"_

"_I'm not going to abandon you, Seifer! What kind of SeeD would I be if I did that?"_

"_The kind who can bust me out of wherever they send me. Now go! That's an order."_

The words didn't really mean much to Seifer; obviously they'd been cornered and Seifer had seen a chance for one of them to escape. He'd had to force Selphie to take it. But where they'd been and why... the important parts slipped through his fingers.

Frustrated, Seifer took stock of the cell he'd been locked in. It was dark, but his sight had finally adjusted well enough that he could make out three others in the cell with him: Quistis, Zell, and Cadell.

Seifer swore softly; he'd hoped to keep Minion out of this.

Scooting over to the nearest wall, Seifer leaned against it and let his eyes slide closed. If he intended to remember how he'd gotten to D-District, then he needed to start with what he could recall already: the drive to the tomb.

They'd been searching for a car that could be stolen without much notice. Dincht, of course, immediately pointed out a Porsche and a Jaguar; the martial artist had no sense of subtlety. Fortunately there was a Troyan van nearby. Quistis pointed it out – it was an older model called a Terra, which looked like a box on wheels but was nearly indestructible in spite of it's truly hideous appearance.

After Quistis located the car, Selphie jimmied the lock to the driver's door open and then used the automatic locks to open the other doors. Seifer carried Squall over to the car and settled into the back row with the brunet. He let Quistis drive without protest; he'd been crashing slowly off the adrenaline high of fighting McCormick and escaping with Squall and he doubted that he was in a good enough condition to drive. Mostly he was hoping to get some sleep during the drive, having already imparted instructions on how to reach the tomb to the other three.

Selphie found a map in the glove compartment and gleefully settled in as their 'navigator.' Zell claimed the middle row and curled up on the bench. Seifer leaned back, running his fingers idly through Squall's hair as the brunet lay with his head on Seifer's lap.

It was nice to pretend, for a few moments, that Squall wouldn't mind... that everything he felt wasn't completely one-sided. Seifer drifted off to sleep, pretending he'd get a happy ending.

Once they got to the Tomb, he sent Quistis and Zell into the ruins with some blank paper from the car's dashboard compartment so that they could map the maze. He was hoping that, if they needed to, their group could hide out in the Tomb without getting lost. His real hope was that there'd be a back door out of the place, but he' was willing to settle for a place where they could retreat to and potentially ambush any enemies.

It took the two of them about an hour and a half to finish their map – unfortunately there was only the one entrance – but they'd found some minotaur GFs to amp up their arsenal. Seifer wasn't really impressed by the find, but the completed map was definitely worth the extra time spent tracking the GFs; they'd been residing within the innermost room of the Tomb, which seemed like the most defensible spot in the ruins.

The four of them took turns on watch during the night and Squall finally woke in the morning. After catching him up on events, Squall sent Seifer back to Deling with Selphie so that they could retrieve Irvine and Rinoa. They walked, since taking the stolen car would be too conspicuous, and thus got back to the city around noon.

The city was completely subdued when they arrived. The soldiers had declared martial law and locked nearly everyone involved in the previous night's riots in jail. About half had been released already with minor 'wrist-slap' style penalties, but the rest were stuck awaiting bail. People were talking in hushed tones about the President's death while the radios proclaimed Sorceress Edea as their new leader.

The king was dead. Long live the queen... or something like that, anyway.

Selphie took her cues from the city-folk and remained quiet and calm as they wandered around in search of clues that might lead them to their missing teammates. Unfortunately they were found by Galbadian soldiers instead. Somehow they knew that the duo were SeeD and that they'd been in on the assassination attempt against Edea the night before. Seifer couldn't make any guesses as to how they knew, just that they did.

They weren't far from the Balamb Embassy, but not close enough. Trapped in an alley, Seifer forced Selphie take to the sewers while he distracted the soldiers. Selphie hadn't taken to his plan very well.

"_I'm not going to abandon you, Seifer!"_

But she'd done as ordered despite her hesitation.

Seifer had fought off the soldiers, but one of them had a portable magic-disabler and, with that neutralizing Seifer's connection to Alexander, his capture was made easy.

That was where his memories started getting fuzzy again. He thought he remembered hearing Cadell's voice telling him, _"I'm sorry... I always sucked at the classes about resisting interrogation,"_ but he desperately wanted to believe that his mind was just playing tricks on him. Maybe she'd said that in jest when they'd met or when she'd told him about how she'd been kicked out of Garden or maybe she'd never said it at all.

Or maybe he was grasping at straws.

There was a rustling noise. Seifer opened his eyes and squinted in the darkness. Dincht was thrashing around a little, but didn't seem to be actually waking. Quistis, on the other hand, appeared to be waking slowly.

Sitting up, the blond woman blinked in confusion as she looked around their cell. Her eyes landed on Seifer and she asked, "where are we?" Her eyes looked a little dull and unfocused; Seifer hoped she didn't have a concussion as well.

"D-District," Seifer told her, sounding far calmer than he felt. "Galbadia's most efficient escape-proof prison. Of course, we're going to ruin their perfect record. Almost sounds fun phrased that way, doesn't it?" he joked.

"Not really." Quistis shook her head and winced a little before growing more alert. "The soldiers who came to the Tomb knocked me on the head, but I think I'm fine now."

"Good. I'm fairly certain I have a concussion; my more recent memories are something of a mess," Seifer told her. Seeing her worried expression, he added, "the last thing I reliably remember is ordering Selphie to escape into the sewers. Seeing as she isn't here, I'm assuming that she made a clean getaway."

"I hope so," Quistis murmured. Taking another look around, Quistis finally registered their fellow cell-mates. "Where's Squall? And what is she doing here?" Trepe gestured to Minion.

"I have no idea on either count..." Seifer pressed a hand against his temple, eyes shutting tightly as pain lanced through him. "She... someone saw her with me while I was carrying Squall last night. The soldiers brought Cadell in for questioning and she wouldn't tell them anything..."

"_I'm sorry... I always sucked at the classes about resisting interrogation."_

"At least, not at first."

"What do you mean?" Quistis' voice wavered, as though she already knew what Seifer was going to say. She probably did, really.

"Everyone breaks eventually, Quistis," Seifer responded, his voice growing a little hoarse as guilt flooded through him.

Cadell was his friend and he should have fucking protected her. But then... Cadell wasn't the sort who liked being protected. When he'd tried to convince Kramer to reinstate her as a cadet and give her the chance to become SeeD that Martine had denied her, she'd been a little flattered and mostly pissed off. She didn't need some knight in shining armor to save her and she been pretty vocal about him needing to mind his own business. She'd gotten really quiet when his only response to the tirade was 'that's what friends do.'

Seifer had a feeling that, as an out and proud lesbian living in Galbadia, Cadell didn't have much experience with friends. At least, not friends willing to stick their necks out for her.

Cadell had been trying to return the favor in her own way the night before and wound up being captured and tortured because of it. Tortured for information the same way he'd tortured Squall in the other timeline... the way some stranger would torture Squall in this reality.

All the thoughts on torture were making Seifer feel nauseous. He remembered how Squall had screamed in pain and the satisfaction he'd felt at knowing an enemy of _his_ Sorceress was suffering. He'd wanted Squall broken...

Admittedly, Seifer wouldn't mind making Squall scream in this time line, but he wanted Squall screaming for reasons a lot more pleasurable than electrocution.

Forcing his thoughts back to the jail he'd woken in while still in Deling City, Seifer recalled once again just how beaten Minion had seemed. They'd been locked in the same cell and her first words to him were her apology for telling the soldiers what she'd seen that night. Her face and arms were bruised, blood streaked her clothing, and there was an almost mousey quality to her actions that utterly terrified Seifer. He didn't know what they'd done to her.

He was afraid to ask.

Soldiers came along at some point and they'd started harassing Cadell – calling her a freak and making lewd comments that normally would have had Cadell shove their words down their throats. She just sat there and took it; her spirit and pride seemingly wiped away. When some corporal came inside the cell and caressed he cheek while talking shit, Seifer saw red.

The bastards hadn't even noticed he was awake. It was a mistake they regretted once he'd bloodied up the corporal's nose and knocked his accomplice against the bars. The soldier's head hit the metal rods hard enough that he collapsed to the ground too stunned to move.

Actually, he might have been unconscious. Seifer was still a little fuzzy on the details. He'd tried to escape with Cadell, but they'd quickly been surrounded and subdued.

"They tortured her for information about where we might go to hide. That's how they knew to check the Tomb of the Unknown King and that's why she's here with us now," Seifer said quietly.

"Hyne," Quistis whispered, crawling over to sit beside the unconscious Galbadian woman. Brushing hair away from Cadell's face, Quistis' expression was a painful combination of guilt and tenderness that Seifer couldn't bear to see.

It looked too much like how he felt.

* * *

Zell woke up babbling about the dream world, but Seifer wasn't paying any attention to him. His worried gaze was on Minion, who was sitting with her arms around her knees and avoiding his gaze.

Cadell had never liked weakness; she could tolerate it in others, but she had always done her best to burn all her own weaknesses away. Everything she'd gone through in the past forty-eight hours made her feel weak, though, and so Minion was feeling angry and guilty and far weaker than she'd ever felt in her entire life.

Seifer didn't know what to say... he didn't know how to make her understand that she wasn't at fault. All the words in the world seemed inadequate. At least Quistis seemed to have a better idea of what to do, having scooted over and wrapped her arms around Cadell's shoulders while running her fingers soothingly through the girl's hair. Cadell had tried to cringe away at first, but she'd caved into accepting Quistis' comfort after a moment of staring into the blonde woman's eyes.

If it weren't for their current situation and location, Seifer might have even thought they looked good together.

There was a clanging noise outside heralding the opening of the cell door. The Warden – a fifty-odd-year-old man with silvered hair, hawk-like eyes, and quite possibly the cruelest smirk Seifer had ever seen – walked in trailed by three guards. One of them leered at Quistis and Cadell, the former bristling like an angered cat while the latter cringed and shrank further into Quistis' embrace.

Seifer stood up dizzily, but managed not to sway noticeably, and then moved to stand between his team and the prison officials. "On what charges have you arrested us? You've violated our rights, as citizens of Balamb. I was forcibly removed from the Balamb Embassy," Seifer couldn't actually remember if he'd made it there or not, but that wasn't really important. "Trepe, Dincht, and Leonhart – whom you're also illegally holding elsewhere – were at the Tomb of the Unknown King, which is neutral soil. Minion is a Galbadian citizen arrested without warrant or cause..."

The Warden was laughing. "Do you hear those sounds?" In the distance there was a distinctive metallic grinding that Seifer managed to recognize after a moment. "That is the sound of your friend, Leonhart, being taken to meet our most skilled... conversationalists."

"Conversationalists," Seifer repeated flatly. He thought he remembered this man. Seifer had liked him a lot more when they'd been on the same side. "Like the ones that Minion talked to back at the Police Station in Deling." His tone made his disgust with the euphemisms pretty clear.

"Oh, we're far more talented here," the warden assured him. His name, if Seifer recalled correct was Smith or Schmidt... or maybe it was actually Simmons? Seifer decided to just go with Smith for now. Smith continued to speak, interrupting Seifer's wandering thoughts. "Of course, if any of you would be willing to tell us about your orders to assassinate the Sorceress and the true purpose of SeeD, then we'd be more than happy to let your friend go unharmed."

"Seed?" Seifer echoed. "As in the elite gardening club?"

Smith – or whatever his name was – moved faster than Seifer could follow with his head throbbing the way it was. The next thing Seifer knew, he was on the ground and staring up at the ceiling dazedly. Zell was standing between him and the warden and all Seifer could think was 'damn, the chocobo-headed kid is actually worried for me.'

He'd always thought of Zell as something akin to an annoying little brother. The idea that maybe Zell considered him family too – or least friend enough to get between him and a sociopath – was kind of nice. Of course, this wasn't the time to be letting his thoughts wander.

Struggling upright, Seifer glared at the warden.

"Smart ass comments aren't tolerated here," the man chided. "Yes, you've all been apprehended in a manner that would be illegal if you were civilians. But you're SeeD and that makes you... prisoners of war. Except for the deviant bitch, of course, but we only brought her because it was convenient at the time. After all, no one will care if she's missing and it'll make re-educating her fellow freaks easier once the Sorceress has taken over."

Minion flinched, her hands forming into fists.

Smith – actually, Seifer was starting to think his name really was Simmons after all – gestured to his men. One of them slammed his fist into Zell's stomach while another pointed his gun directly at Quistis' head. The third guard grabbed Minion, jerking her off the ground and away from Quistis before dragging her out the door.

Seifer tried to stand up, but the room spun just before everything grayed out. He heard the door shut with a clang.

"Shit," Seifer snarled, panting for breath and blinking furiously as the world slowly came back into focus. "Shit!"

"They took her," Zell growled, also sucking in pained breaths. "Some SeeD we are. We can't complete our Timber mission; we can't manage to assassinate a Sorceress; we can't even save someone right in front of us..."

"If all you intend to do is further indulge in your little pity party, then shut up," Quistis snapped.

"He's got a point," Seifer said quietly. "We're really crappy at this." Seifer managed to pull himself into a crouching position so that the way the room seemed to spin wouldn't knock him down again. "When they send someone in to feed us at lunch... or dinner or whatever the next meal is... Zell, you should jump the guard. You're a martial artist and thus the only one here who hasn't been parted from your main weapon."

"Yeah... sure thing." Zell sounded worried. "You okay, man?"

"It's nothing a cure spell won't fix once we get them to lower the magic barrier for us," Seifer responded confidently."

"And how are we going to get them to lower the magic barrier?" Quistis asked quietly, the doubt she felt evident in her tone.

"When Dincht takes out the guards, he can go retrieve our weapons. With armed SeeD in the building, they'll lower the barrier so that their people can use magic; they'll think it'll give them an edge over us," Seifer explained as he finally managed to settle in a real sitting position without keeling over. "Most tech has more limitations when it comes to magic, particularly when it comes to drawing magic out of other people. They can't do it with their armor, so it isn't likely to occur to them that, once we have access to our junctions again, we'll be able to draw their magic from them."

"I certainly hope you're right," Zell muttered. "So, what time is it, anyway?"

"There's a watch on your wrist, Chicken-wuss. You tell me."

* * *

Lunch was brought in by a moomba. Seifer had never seen one before and he couldn't help but think it was a pity Selphie and Fujin weren't around to see it. Selphie would have loved the fuzzy little guy and Fujin had a well hidden girly side. She'd have been visibly resisting the urge to hug the moomba, which would have been a truly priceless scene to witness.

Seifer had to work to keep from voicing his opinions out loud. Concussions tended to kill off the filter between his thoughts and his mouth and he didn't want Dincht or Trepe hearing every random thought that popped into his head. Unfortunately, the effort was making his headache worse.

His fellow inmates were, luckily enough, distracted by the moomba, who just so happened to be a particularly clumsy moomba. It tripped, dumpling the tray of food it carried all over the floor. Given that the food looked like some sort of gruel and soup hybrid, Seifer felt it likely that nothing edible had been wasted. The guard came racing in at the sound, however, and he started kicking the moomba, completely oblivious to the fact that he was leaving himself basically wide open in front of three well-trained SeeD.

Zell proceeded to kick the idiot's ass. The tattooed blond then commenced with the dorkiest victory dance Seifer had ever had the misfortune to witness. "Booya!" Zell declared as he waved his arms around.

"That's great, Dincht," Seifer drawled. "You kicked the ass of a particularly incompetent guard. Could you go get our weapons back now?" Seifer smirked as Zell glared.

"Yeah, whatever," Zell grumbled, visibly deflating. He headed towards the door, but paused as he realized the moomba was following him.

Raijin once found a terrier who'd acted the same way. Rai had rescued the mutt from some oversized bats and nursed her back to health. She'd acted like Raijin had hung the moon just for her and her eyes spoke of unforgivable betrayal when he left her at the pound.

The big guy had cried for hours afterwards, cursing Garden's no-pets rule.

"Huh... you wanna go too?" Zell asked the moomba, who bobbed it's head enthusiastically. "Ah, I guess that'd be a 'yes.' Just don't get in the way; leave the fighting to me, okay?" The moomba's head bobbed again in a clear 'yes.' Grinning and punching the air excitedly, Zell lead the way out into the hall.

"Seifer..." Quistis stood and began to pace beside the door. "What do you think they wanted with Minion?"

"I have no idea," Seifer responded with a shrug. "In Balamb, as long as you don't start talking about marriage rights, it's considered perfectly okay for people to be openly gay or bisexual. It's not perfect acceptance, but it's a damn sight better than in Galbadia. Whether it's the religious saying that it's a sin against Hyne or the atheists saying that it's unnatural mental disorder, Galbadia is just full of people trying to 'fix' anyone who shows even the slightest homosexual inclination.

"Cadell, however, has been running a very small version of LBGT in Deling and, well... given what our 'friendly' warden had to say, I don't see this ending well for her." Seifer sighed and ran a hand through his hair. "I should have tried harder to keep her from sticking around last night, but she's just so stubborn..."

"She's an unusual woman," Quistis responded. "I hope we can save her."

"You like her a little, don't you?"

"What?" Quistis squawked.

"I'm not saying you want to go have mad monkey sex with her," Seifer teased with a smirk, "I'm just saying you like her. She was hitting on you in Deling and was, before getting tortured, completely confident in herself without being ass about it the way I am. It's hard not to like somebody like that."

"It is an alluring quality," Quistis admitted. "I wouldn't mind getting to spend more time with her, if we get that chance.

Seifer smirked. "Alluring, eh?"

"Oh shut up."

"You said it first."

"I meant..."

"Enticing? Tempting? Seductive even?"

"You're an ass."

"You really do like her." Seifer laughed at her scowl. "Oh come on, Trepe, it can't be that bad to realize that you're a little attracted to someone of your own gender."

"And you would know, wouldn't you," Quistis shot back in a sulky, if matter-of-fact tone.

Amusement draining away, Seifer nodded. "Yeah... I guess I do."

"So... Fujin was right about your feelings for Squall after all."

"It's something of a miracle that he's been talking to me at all lately," Seifer told her flatly. "The odds of that becoming anything more than friendship... well..." he snorted derisively. "I'm not going to hold my breath."

"He told me to talk to a wall," Quistis admitted. "When I opened up to him about loosing my instructor's license... I was hoping he'd listen and maybe say something nice. That... maybe I'd get an opening to tell him how I felt. Instead he told me to talk to a wall."

"That sounds like our Squall alright."

"Really? Then why does he tell you things like how he's bothered by how little he knows about you?"

Seifer's mind darted back to that moment on the balcony during the ball, just before Quistis walked up, when Squall had told him, _"I realized that I don't really know much about you and, for some reason, that bothers me." _Seifer hadn't understood his feelings for Squall at the time, but the sentiment the brunet had expressed and the intimacy of the setting had made him buzz with energy.

"Eavesdropping is generally not appreciated," Seifer told her bluntly.

Zell burst back into the room, the moomba mere steps behind him. "Got 'em!" He tossed Quistis her whip while the moomba trotted over and reverently handed Hyperion over to Seifer.

Nodding at the moomba, who still held Squall's Revolver, Seifer stood up with Hyperion acting as a prop. His head felt clearer now; despite being stuck in the rambling phase of his concussion, Seifer felt like he was doing better.

"This the cell with the SeeD?" they heard a voice outside ask.

"Yes," came the voice of the warden. "They're the ones who tried to assassinate our Sorceress."

"Are you sure we should be picking on prisoners so soon after getting transferred here?"

"If you don't have the balls for it, just say so."

"Just wondering, geez."

Seifer rolled his eyes. "Here come the clowns," he muttered, earning a half-amused, half-annoyed glance from Quistis.

The door opened and four guards walked in along with the warden. "As you can see, SeeD are no match for well-trained Galbadian soldiers."

"Wanna bet?" Seifer shot back while Zell punched one of the guards in the face. (Said guard curled up in a ball and began singing to himself.)

Quistis' whip flashed and Seifer gladly stepped aside to let her take on the warden while he wen after two of the guards. The guards were idiots and pathetic fighters (one of them ran away screaming during the fight, which left Seifer with only one foe to fight); these definitely weren't Galbadia's finest. Normally Seifer would have left the stooges for someone else to fight while he took on the leader, but he knew that was a bad idea so long as he was concussed. There was also the fact that Quistis had a lot of pent up aggression at the moment and letting her brutalize the only competent fighter on the adversary's team seemed like the best outlet for her.

Within minutes the room contained only three live SeeD; one guard singing about raindrops, roses, and kittens; two most-likely-dead guards; and one most-definitely-dead warden.

"You're getting the lyrics wrong," Seifer told the singing guard absently.

There was a moment of silence and then the guard switched to a different song.

The alarm started blaring at that point and Seifer took that as his cue to lead Quistis and Zell out the door. Much to Seifer's relief, one of the staff could be heard announcing, "warning! Escapee alert! Monsters will be let loose on each floor. If escapees refuse to surrender, permission to kill has been granted. The anti-magic field has been lifted."

"Cura!"

Seifer felt the haze in his mind clear away as Quistis' spell buzzed through him. "Thanks."

"No problem."

"Where do you think they're holding Squall?" Zell asked.

"Upstairs," Seifer said, already walking in the direction of the stairs.

"What about Cadell?"

Seifer froze for a moment and looked back at Quistis. He didn't say anything, but she must have seen an answer in his face from the way she looked away, stricken. _One person at a time, _he thought unhappily. _We can't save everyone at once. We have to take it one person at a time._

The building shook abruptly, knocking Quistis to her knees and landing Zell on his ass. Seifer braced his hands against the railing alongside the stairs. There was a keening yelp as a monster on the opposite side of their level lost it's balance and plummeted over the side of the central pit. Seifer swallowed uneasily at the sensation at the pit of his stomach, like he was in an elevator racing towards the top floor of a tall building.

That was when Seifer remembered just what it was that made D-District prison so inescapable. It's design was based on drills, allowing it to raise the entrance miles above the ground.

"You two okay?" Seifer asked.

"Yeah." Zell scrambled to his feet, one hand rubbing his butt. Seifer snickered softly at the sight.

Quistis stood up a little more slowly, her expression pained as she ran her hands over her knees. "I'm fine. Whatever that was, it doesn't seem like a good sign."

"No shit," Zell muttered, earning a dirty look from the blue witch.

"We'll figure it out later. Right now, our priority is locating Squall." His fellow blonds nodded in agreement and moved to join him at the stairs.

The climb was slow – they were several floors down – and there were several groups of soldiers and monsters between them and their goal: the interrogation room. Still, the room itself was mostly empty when they arrived.

Squall was sitting alone, unconscious, propped up against the electroshock unit. His jacket lay discarded on the floor beside him – likely dropped there by some uncaring technician to keep it from getting in the way of the electrodes – but his bloodstained shirt had unmarred skin beneath the jagged hole made by Ultimecia's icicle spear. Squall was too pale, however, and there was blood crusted at his nose and mouth; only the rise and fall of his chest gave away the fact that he still lived.

Seifer stared at the scene for a split second, remembering again – vividly – the things he'd done in another lifetime to create this very scene. Shoving away the memories and horrified feelings that now accompanied them, Seifer crossed the room in a flash. He checked Squall for internal and external injuries and then coaxed the brunet back to consciousness.

He woke with a gasp, struggling blindly away from Seifer. Sweat had matted Squall's hair into spikes in places and plastered it against his face in others. His eyes, in the moments before he registered who he was looking at, were full of anger, not terror.

The anger was like a punch to the gut.

Squall had looked at him that way while turning him away from Garden. The brunet's appearance had been immaculate at the time, not a hair out of place. His forehead had been scarred, hardening his otherwise effeminate visage and making him seem older than merely seventeen. Rinoa had clung to his arm, her chilly demeanor towards Seifer a perfect compliment to her boyfriend's cold rage.

There'd been so much confusion after they'd told him to leave. Seifer hadn't regretted the things he'd done, but he'd felt detached from them... from everything. It was like the whole war had happened with him watching through someone else's eyes... like someone else had called the shots. He'd tried to tell himself differently – lied to himself about being in control – but when faced with Squall's hatred, Seifer had wanted everything to just end. He stopped caring what happened to himself and he fled Balamb. He'd decided to run to some town in the middle of nowhere, just outside of Galbadia's jurisdiction, but never quite made it.

Seifer found out the hard way what the Galbadian stance was on sentencing without trials and whether or not death was an acceptable punishment.

"Seifer?" Squall's voice, breathless and a bit disbelieving, brought Seifer out of his painful memories.

"Yeah?"

Squall didn't answer. He simply closed his eyes and leaned his forehead against Seifer's shoulder while his breathing slowly evened out. Once he was calm again, Squall stood up and Seifer stood with him, his hands briefly brushing Squall's shoulders to steady him.

Pulling away from Squall in order to give him space, Seifer glanced over at the other two SeeD in the room. Zell was ignoring them in favor of fiddling with the room's main computer interface. Seifer kind of figured that the martial artist didn't know what to do in the face of Squall having been tortured and was focusing on what he could do, which was attempt to hack the prison's mainframe. Quistis, on the other hand, was watching Seifer intently with an expression that was was a little jealous, but mostly accepting.

It was pretty clear what she thought was going on and Seifer wished she was right. But even though Seifer doubted Squall returned his feelings, the brunet was clearly closer to him than anyone else. In fact, it seemed as though Squall was comfortable enough with him that he'd taken strength from Seifer's presence. Just thinking about it left Seifer feeling all warm and tingly inside.

Seifer had to beat down the giddy smile that threatened to overrun his face. There was no way Seifer was going to let his reputation get torn to shreds by something as simple as a lovestruck grin. Instead, Seifer returned Squall's gunblade and then gave his attention to Zell. "What are you doing, Dincht?"

"Uh... I'm trying to pull up the schematics for this place." Zell glanced nervously at Seifer, his eyes flicking first to Squall and then to Quistis before returning fully to Seifer. Seifer tried not to curse, wondering for the first time if maybe Quistis had been telling someone else about Fujin's desire to play matchmaker with Seifer and Squall. Maybe he was just jumping to conclusions, but... there was something rather twitchy about Zell that had nothing to do with being in prison or hacking computers. "The... the system is password protected, though, and we don't really have enough time to hack our way in."

"We don't have much of a choice but to try," Quistis disagreed. "This room is defensible whereas none of the other rooms we've seen so far have been. Try rebooting the interface in command line mode," she added. "Galbadian programming is pretty much worthless; finding a backdoor in one of the accessible directories shouldn't be too difficult."

"Squall?" Zell bit his lip and turned back to the computer, rebooting it like Quistis had suggested.

"What?" Squall responded tiredly.

Zell fidgeted uncomfortably. "What happened to you?"

"I was tortured," Squall responded bluntly, declining the chance to elaborate. He was standing strong on his own now, which sent waves of relief through Seifer. His interrogators hadn't had enough time to break Squall the way Cadell had been.

Hyne... Minion. Where would they have taken her?

Quistis began to hover over Zell's shoulder, directing him in infiltrating the system and taking advantage of shoddy Galbadian programming languages. First she had him pull up blue prints for D-District and plotted possible escape routes. Then she had him look into the prisoner records.

While they were busy, Seifer quietly brought Squall up to speed on their situation. There wasn't much to say and Seifer was still fuzzy on some of the details even though his concussion was gone. Odds were he'd never remember his lost day completely, especially now that he'd been healed; magically healing concussions tended to make any lost memories unrecoverable.

"They took Cadell to the Sorceress," Quistis reported flatly. "The jolt we felt just after escaping was them raising the prison after sending out a transport with her in it."

"Raising the prison...?" Squall echoed.

Zell nodded. "Yeah. It says here that the prison is like a drill; it goes up and down on command. All we have to do is find the right command and we can make it sink again."

"What would the Sorceress want with Cadell?" Quistis asked, her eyes riveted to the screen.

"She's a powerful blue witch with reasons to hate the people in charge of SeeD. She was tortured badly enough that her spirit was damaged. My guess is that the Sorceress is shopping for a new Knight." Seifer hated saying it, but he knew the Sorceress' MO. After all, she'd given him empty promises at his lowest point, exploited his resentment of SeeD...

"Cadell wouldn't join her... would she?" Quistis looked as though she couldn't comprehend how that might happen.

Seifer couldn't bring himself to lie even to comfort her. "Minion is vulnerable. She doesn't have much of a choice. Sorceresses are capable of mind control, Trepe."

Silence hung over them heavily as Quistis directed Zell to search for the controls for the prison's drill mechanism.

"Shh... there might be guards..."

Seifer jerked around to stare at the door to the interrogation room. They'd had to beat off plenty of guards and monsters on the way up, but the voice outside the door sounded familiar.

Sliding open with a hiss, the door revealed Selphie, Irvine, and Rinoa, all posed and ready for battle. They all seemed very confused to see Seifer, Squall, Quistis, and Zell unguarded.

Smirking, Seifer looked over at Squall, who nodded and shrugged. "Submerge the prison," he ordered. On cue, the prison shuddered. The room's occupants easily braced themselves against the walls. Selphie, Irvine, and Rinoa, however, were not inside the room. They were in the doorway and they toppled into the room, landing in a heap together.

"If I die now, I die happy," Irvine declared, leering up at the two girls on top of him.

Seifer laughed as Rinoa scrambled off of Irvine in embarrassment. Selphie, however, waggled her eyebrows suggestively as she sat up, straddling Irvine's chest. She stood up slowly and then hopped away, a smirk on her face. Irvine's grin widened; he'd probably just gotten an eyeful of Selphie's underwear. Sitting up, Irvine stared after the copper haired girl with pure adoration in his eyes. Rolling his own, Seifer walked over to Irvine and held out his hand.

"Time to get up, Lover-boy. You can moon over Coppercurls later... like when we're not in a prison filled with untold amounts of Galbadian soldiers and their monster pets."

Irvine scowled, reluctantly accepting Seifer's offered help. "Jerk."

"Yup," Seifer agreed cheerfully. "How'd you find us?"

"Well, after you sent me into the sewers," Selphie spoke up, "I found Rinoa and Irvine hiding in the gate control room. There weren't any soldiers there, so it was actually the perfect place to hide. Kinda ironic, huh?"

Irvine grinned, taking over the explanation from there. "Rinoa and I got stuck in jail after the parade. We were rounded up with some of the rioters. Since they didn't actually have anything on us, though, they let us out in the morning after everything finally settled down. We checked around for you guys and, when we couldn't find anyone, went to the gate control room to hide out."

"Once Selphie got there," Rinoa chimed in, "we checked out the Police Station, but they'd already moved you. We also heard that they'd caught a few SeeD up at the Tomb. So I took us back to my father's house and I... convinced him to tell us how to reach D-District prison." Rinoa smirked and managed, oddly enough, to pull it off fairly well.

"Then we stole another car and came straight here," Selphie chirped, bouncing happily as she picked up the threads. "We sneaked in right before the whole thing shot up into the air. But we were on the wrong drill thingy and had to look up prison records before walking all the way over here. So..." she turned to Squall and beamed. "How'd we do?"

Startled, Squall glanced over at Seifer for a second. His expression reminded Seifer of a deer caught in the headlights of an oncoming vehicle. But Squall seemed to regain his equilibrium after a moment and he turned his attention fully on Selphie, Irvine, and Rinoa. "You all did good," he told them, watching as they all lit up under the praise.


	9. Chapter 8

Disclaimer – I don't own Final Fantasy VIII. Too bad for me, huh?

A/N – Having put some distance between myself and the last chapter (as well as having received so many positive reviews), I'm less unhappy with it than I was. Kit's still very iffy on it, but she's a harder self-critic than I am. I know that some people were about as displeased with chapter seven as we were, so I hope this chapter makes that up to you guys.

June 26, 2010 - Fixed the formatting and a few minor errors. :)

_Chapter Eight_

The timing was spectacular, but not good. Almost as soon as Squall finished telling them about the impending missile launches against Balamb and Trabia, the first wave of those very missiles could be seen shooting up into the sky and streaking away into the distance.

"Th-that's... headed straight for Trabia..." Selphie sounded so young and lost at that moment. Seifer didn't realize he'd reached out to her until his hand was already on her shoulder and he could feel her shaking under his palm. "It's a miss, right?"

"Selphie," Irvine said quietly, also putting a hand on Selphie's arm. He opened his mouth to say something - anything - but didn't speak further. What could he say?

It wasn't going to be all right.

The copper haired girl turned to Seifer and gave him a brave smile, but there were tears in her eyes. All he could do was squeeze her shoulder and push her towards the cowboy. Irvine pulled Selphie into his arms and held her as she pulled herself back together.

"We need to get to Balamb Garden and evacuate before the next missile launch," Squall spoke up. His voice shook slightly, showing that even he was moved by what was happening. Seifer longed to move closer to Squall, but he didn't dare.

"Not all of us," Selphie countered. "That base... if three of us went there right now, we could stop the launch. We could blow up the base before the missiles are even ready to be shot at Balamb. We... could avenge Trabia." Even though she sounded shaky, Selphie refused to be beaten. "You're the leader Squall, so it's up to you. But I volunteer to be part of the team sent to take out that base."

"It is a good idea to hedge our bets," Quistis added. "Sending half of us back to Balamb and the other half to tackle the base raises our chances of saving Garden."

Squall looked from Selphie to Quistis and then to Seifer. "It's your show, Squall. Trepe's got a point, though, and Coppercurls deserves to blow something up. She's been wanting to ever since you guys left for Timber, right?"

"Yup," Selphie managed to give a fairly cheerful sounding chirp even as her hands rubbed at her eyes to brush away the tears.

Closing his eyes, Squall let out an unhappy sigh and ran a hand through his hair, further messing up his already mussed chocolate locks. "Fine. Quistis, you'll lead the team to base with Selphie and Zell. I want someone who will keep a cool head in charge," he added the last part with an apologetic tone to Selphie, who just nodded. She was just pleased to be part of the infiltration team. "The rest of us will proceed to the local train station to see if we can procure transportation back to Balamb," Squall concluded.

"We're going to hijack a train!" Rinoa exclaimed with a grin. Turning to Selphie, Rinoa grabbed the girl's hands and said, "I know things are bad right now, but we'll make the Sorceress pay for what she's done eventually."

"You're right." Selphie reluctantly disentangled herself from Irvine's arms. "Good luck, Rinoa."

"You too, Selphie." Rinoa dropped Selphie's hands.

* * *

"So... have any of you ever actually driven a train before?" Rinoa asked, looking from Squall to Seifer to Irvine. The three men each responded negatively. "Well, it's about two hours from here to Balamb, so I'll be fine doing this on my own." Flipping a few switches, pulling a couple of levers, and kicking a button at about knee level, Rinoa smirked as the train started moving. "After all, I've spent the past few months living on a train. I picked up on how to work one pretty fast."

Squall gazed at her for a long moment and Rinoa blushed. Finally nodding, Squall opened the door to the rear compartment. "Let me know when we arrive." He walked out, the door shutting behind him.

"Damn... it was like he was looking right through me," Rinoa muttered.

"Yeah, well don't read too much into it," Irvine responded quietly. "Ever since we were kids, the only three people Squall's ever really had the time of day for were his sister, Matron, and Seifer. As far as I can tell, Ellone and Matron aren't on the list any more, but Seifer still is."

"I'm also standing right here," Seifer said, trying not to be annoyed. Irvine was a sniper and snipers tended to be very observant people, so if he thought that... Seifer ignored the direction that particular thought was going in. Now was definitely not the time to be considering potential romantic entanglements with the SeeD destined to be nicknamed 'The Balamb Lion' by the adoring Timber Maniacs.

"Why, imagine that..." Irvine drawled in mock surprise.

"Huh..." Rinoa was staring at Seifer intently.

"What?" Seifer snapped, folding his arms defensively. He knew that look; it meant that Rinoa had finally gotten over her snit and was actually thinking logically again. The girl was quite smart when she wasn't acting spoiled and Hyne only knew what she was considering now.

"You... you care about Squall," Rinoa said slowly.

"He..." Seifer started to object, only to be interrupted by his ex.

"Don't give me any BS about him being your friend and 'of course I care,'" she mimicked his voice while staying both quiet and calm. "It's obvious. The only reason I didn't notice before is because I was throwing a hissy fit."

"At least you've got that last part right," Seifer snarled, narrowing his eyes.

"I'm attempting to grow out of my brattiness. So I don't always succeed; sue me." Rinoa grinned impishly. "You _like_ Squall. You maybe even _love_ him, don't you?"

Seifer opened his mouth to respond, only Irvine cut him off. "Don't expect him to respond positively to that, Rinoa. Though he does care deeply about Squall. As you said, it's obvious. Well, obvious to anyone who isn't Squall. Unfortunately, Squall is not good at identifying his own emotions, much less someone else's."

"I hate you... both of you," Seifer glared at them, careful to keep his voice down. He doubted Squall could hear any of them, but... better safe than sorry. He hadn't gotten this far in befriending Squall again only for the brunet to freak out over learning Seifer was harboring feelings for him.

"I should be upset," Rinoa mused. "After all, just a few days ago I thought I was in love with you and here you are pining for another man."

"I am not _pining_," Seifer hissed even as Irvine smothered laughter by covering his mouth with his hands.

"But I think you were right. I was in love with the idea of love. I still am. But maybe what I need is to be single... to find out who I am and who I want to be instead of defining myself by the way other people perceive me." Rinoa paused and then added, "besides, I've suddenly got this mental image of you making out with Squall and it's really hot." She waved her hand at her face, as if to fan herself. "I wish you luck wooing that guy, Seifer. You're gonna need it... and patience."

"I wish you hadn't said that thing about the mental picture," Irvine grumbled unhappily. "Just because my orphan buddy here is bi doesn't mean I am. No soap will ever make my brain clean again..."

"You know what?" Seifer glared at the duo. "I don't have to stand here and take this." He walked into the rear compartment, ignoring the way they both started giggling. By not denying his feelings for Squall, Seifer knew he was as good as admitting to them, but... he'd had a long couple of days and wasn't the world's greatest liar to begin with. Besides, denial would have only encouraged them to make jokes about protesting too much and the Nile river in Trabia's ice desert.

Seifer froze when he saw Squall, though. The brunet SeeD was curled up on a bench, his head pillowed on his jacket, and his eyes were closed. Squall's mouth was parted slightly and his chest rose and fell in a slow, even rhythm; he'd already fallen asleep. He looked so... breathtaking.

Pulling off his own jacket, Seifer draped it over the snoozing gunblader and then settled on the opposite bench. He leaned against the corner, watching Squall for a few moments until he dropped off to sleep as well.

* * *

"What the hell?" Seifer asked, coming to a shocked standstill at what they were witnessing.

"For the true Garden Master, NORG!" shouted one of the SeeDs fighting in Balamb Garden's entrance.

The girl the pro-NORG SeeD was fighting appeared to be an elder cadet and she shot back, "Headmaster Cid is the only leader we acknowledge!"

"What's going on?" Rinoa asked, her voice shaking in fear.

"I have no idea," Irvine responded. "I know who Headmaster Cid is... but NORG? Do either of you know who that is?" he asked the Balamb residents.

"Unfortunately, yeah," Seifer answered. "NORG is Garden's original financial backer. He used his money and influence to set himself up as Kramer's equal in Balamb's hierarchy."

"We don't have time for this. The missiles could arrive any minute," Squall hissed, glaring at the fighters.

"Then we need to get in there and start evacuation procedures," Seifer sighed. "This is gonna be fun," he drawled as sarcastically as possible.

They walked up to the entrance and one of the Shumi Guardian's approached them mere feet away from where the fight was occurring. "Who do you support? The true leader, NORG, or the Headmaster?"

"Neither," Squall said, attempting to explain, "there are missiles..."

"Apathy is death," the Guardian interrupted with a snarl. "Destroy them!" he commanded.

One of the SeeDs in the battle turned to them, but Seifer pinned the idiot with one of his most hateful glares. The SeeD stilled, prompting the others in the little battle to give the newcomers their complete attention.

Grabbing the cowl neck of the Shumi Guardian's uniform, Seifer gave the Guardian a little shake. "There are Galbadian missiles on the way here to destroy Garden. These missiles don't give a damn who we support; they'll kill supporters of NORG and supporters of Kramer with equal amounts of prejudice because, in the end, we're all SeeD here. Now stop fucking around and start the evacuation procedures." Seifer released the Shumi's uniform with enough force that the man stumbled backwards several steps. Turning to glare at the SeeDs and cadets staring at him, Seifer said, "you're all perfectly capable of spreading the news about the missiles too. Get your asses in gear and work together like we're taught to."

"Uh... Aye, sir," the cadet who'd proclaimed herself pro-Kramer just moments earlier nodded and snapped off a salute before rushing into Garden's main entrance. Less enthusiastically, both the cadet's allies and enemies ran off to follow her example. The Shumi Guardian, however, just stood there in a stunned sort of stupor.

"We need to apprise the Headmaster of the situation," Squall decided, giving the shocked Shumi a disgusted look. "Snap out of it!"

"Y-you will be brought before the Disciplinary Council when this is over for your treatment of me, Sergeant Almasy," the Shumi growled before scurrying off into the building.

"It's so nice to know he's got his priorities straight," Irvine spoke up. "So, let's go save the headless chickens, shall we?"

Rinoa giggled, earning an annoyed look from Squall, but Seifer simply ignored her. That was just part of Rinoa's coping mechanism. They made their way into the main hall of Garden and, much to Seifer's relief, Fujin and Raijin immediately came running up to them.

"What's the situation?" Seifer asked, gesturing to the fighting that surrounded them. "How did this start?"

"Garden Master NORG ordered Headmaster Cid's arrest after we got word about the failure of the assassination attempt, ya know?" Raijin began explaining after getting a sharp look from Fuu. "Cid wasn't about to come quietly, so Security sided with NORG. The other departments have sided with the Headmaster though, ya know? Xu's been organizing things; she's ordered decoys of the Headmaster to be set up throughout Garden and evacuated the majority of the cadets. Some of the older cadets decided to stick around and fight too, ya know?"

"There are missiles en-route here from Galbadia," Squall told Seifer's posse.

"Shit," Fujin muttered softly. "EVACUATE PERSONNEL."

"We need to report to the Headmaster," Seifer added.

"You'll need to find Xu then. She's the only one who knows where the Headmaster really is, ya know?"

"We'll find Xu," Squall decided. "Take Rinoa and oversee the evacuation."

"AFFIRMATIVE," Fujin said.

"No way," Rinoa protested. "I'm not going to just turn around and run away."

"You should have remained behind in Balamb," Squall shot back. "You're a..."

"Civilian: I swear, that has to be your second favorite word, right after 'whatever.'" Rinoa stamped her foot and glared. "I'll help search for Xu or pass on the word about evacuating before the missiles show up, but I will not run away from this."

"You don't have to leave yet," Squall caved slightly, "but you will stay with Fujin and Raijin for now. If one of them tells you to do something, then you will do it without question."

"But I..."

"If you don't take the compromise, you'll be the first person evacuated," Squall snapped.

"Fine." Rinoa followed after Fujin and Raijin, who were headed towards the dorms.

"She's really bad at taking orders," Irvine observed quietly. "I've never met a more stubborn girl. You're lucky she decided not to cling to your arm again, Squall."

Absently rubbing his right arm, Squall shuddered. "I nearly lost circulation in my arm when she did that at Deling."

"Careful Squall. Over exposure to a clingy Rinoa can drive people crazy or lead to the development of Stockholm Syndrome," Seifer joked. "I've got an idea on how to get everyone's attention," he added more seriously. Dodging a pair of fighters (Seifer was fairly certain that they'd been friends the last time he'd seen them), Seifer took the stairs to the elevator platform two at a time. Once he reached the top, he turned to face outward.

Bringing his right hand up to his face, Seifer let out the loudest, most ear piercing whistle he could manage. The battles in the room dropped to a standstill. "May I have your attention, please?" Seifer shouted, though his tone was clearly snarky. "There are Galbadian missiles on their way here right now. We need to start evacuation procedures. So, if you'd all kindly stop trying to murder the people who were your friends and allies just hours earlier, perhaps a few people might actually manage to survive. Now, does anyone know where Xu is?"

"Are you serious?" yelled back one SeeD.

"Deadly," Seifer responded. "Trabia Garden has already been leveled. The second wave of missiles are headed for us and could arrive at any time."

Squall and Irvine had reached Seifer by then and quickly added confirmation of what Seifer was telling the crowd. Then some moron yelled "the end has come!" and all hell broke lose again.

"We're all going to die," Irvine declared calmly. "The headless chickens are going to get us all killed."

"He's got a point," Seifer agreed, though he noticed that everyone seemed to be drifting in the general direction of the carpool. "Do you think anyone will tell Xu we're looking for her?"

"I hear you're looking for me?" called Xu's voice from the direction of the quad.

Squall smirked.

Seifer sighed and then turned towards Xu. "Yeah. We just got back from our relaxing vacation in Galbadia. The neighborhood Sorceress has sent us a few missiles as a sign that they're gracious hosts and would love to have us back sometime soon. We need to report to the Headmaster."

Xu hurried to meet them and hit the button to summon the elevator. "The Headmaster is in his office. I'll take you to him immediately." The doors pinged open and she led them inside.

"Xu, this is Irvine from Galbadia Garden," Squall quietly introduced the instructor to the sharpshooter.

"It's a pleasure to meet you," Irvine purred, taking her hand and landing a kiss on her knuckles.

"What would Selphie think?" Seifer asked, only partly serious.

"I'm being gentlemanly," Irvine protested, scowling up at the blonde. "Nothing wrong with that, right?" he asked, turning to Xu and smiling charmingly as he let go of her hand.

"I think you're looking for trouble," Xu responded with a grin.

"Aww, Xu, you wound me." Irvine staggered back against the back of the elevator and clutched at his chest in mock pain.

"Keep it up and I might," Xu warned, but she laughed anyway.

They arrived at the third floor and Xu led them to the Headmaster's office. She made them wait outside while she went in first, but invited them inside a few moments later while she left. Ostensibly she was on her way to help with the evacuation procedures, but Seifer didn't see how evacuating was going to help at this point. They needed to figure out where the engine room was and get Garden flying, pronto.

Not that he intended to say anything to that effect. Seifer didn't want anyone to think he was crazy, after all. Telling people that Garden could fly would likely land him in the funny farm at this point. In a few hours that would change, of course, but right now...

"Xu has told me about the missiles. The intercom is down so we can't announce the order to evacuate," the Headmaster told them as they entered the office.

Squall nodded sharply. "Xu, Raijin, and Fujin are taking care of that."

"I want you to assist them and then evacuate." Kramer pulled what looked like a credit card out of his pocket and glanced at it absently. It was probably a key card of some sort, but no one used them around Garden. Seifer couldn't even begin to imagine what it was for.

"But we have a lot to report," Squall protested.

"You can tell me later." Seeing the look on Squall's face, Kramer asked, "do you have a problem with that?"

Squall stared at Kramer with an unreadable expression. "Sir, what are you going to do?"

"I'm going to stay here and see this to the end. After all, this place is like my home."

"It's our home, too," Seifer spoke up.

"You can rest assured. I am going to try something. There still may be a way to save the Garden." Kramer took a few steps forward and then dropped to his knees, one of his hands reaching for his chest. He laughed breathlessly. "I'm too old for this."

Squall held out a hand towards the Headmaster and said, "sir, I'd like for us to handle whatever it is that you're planning."

"And why is that?"

"Aside from the fact that you look like you're only a few steps away from a heart attack?" Seifer snarked.

"My feelings have nothing to do with it, sir," Squall added, shooting Seifer a sharp look.

"My feelings have everything to do with me agreeing with you," Seifer muttered. "This is our _home_," he repeated emphatically.

"Quistis was right," Kramer laughed, letting Squall pull him to his feet. "You do have a hard time expressing your feelings."

"Sir!" Squall's eyes flickered, getting that look that Seifer always associated with Squall being a few steps away from challenging someone (meaning Seifer) to a fight. "Please tell us your plan!"

"This building used to be a shelter, long before it was remodeled into the Garden as we know it." Kramer handed Squall the key card. "Use that key on the reader in the elevator and it will give you access to the ID level. Rumor has it that further below the MD level, there is some kind of a control system. It was used when this place was still a shelter, so I've never seen it. And I have no idea what it does. All I know is that it was used for the shelter, so it might prove effective against the missiles. That's what I'm betting on."

"I understand. We'll find the control system and check it out." Squall saluted and turned to Seifer who simply shrugged.

"This plan has more holes in it than Swiss cheese," Seifer murmured.

"No kidding," Irvine mumbled back.

The Headmaster didn't seem to notice the two of them whispering. "Good luck to all of you."

* * *

The elevator did have a slot in it for the key card after all. Squall used the card and within moments they were heading down. The trio were silent as they waited to reach their destination. Below the basement levels, however, the elevator came to an abrupt, jerking halt.

When the doors didn't open, Seifer tried hitting the emergency release button that, had they been stopped at one of the floors, should have caused the doors to open. Nothing happened. "Looks like we're stuck," he observed.

Kneeling down, Squall pried open the emergency hatch. "We'll have to continue this way."

Irvine was the first to go down, but Seifer tapped Squall's shoulder before either one of them could follow after him. "You lied, back at the Headmaster's office. Your emotions have everything to do with your offer to take this mission to the ID level. I know you, Squall. You don't want to lose this place – our home – any more than I do."

"..." Squall gave Seifer an annoyed look.

"There's the expression I was hoping for. Instead of blatantly lying the next time you don't know what to tell the Headmaster, just glare at him like that, okay?" Seifer teased with a grin.

"You're so full of it," Squall grumbled, but his eyes sparked with amusement as he climbed out of the elevator.

As Seifer followed after Squall, Irvine yelled up at them, "this place is covered in dust; I doubt anyone's been here in a long time. We should be particularly careful, okay?"

"Noted," Squall called back.

Seifer climbed done and followed Irvine and Squall into the first open access door off the ladder. As he was pulling himself inside, the elevator made a rather distressing noise and Seifer hastily sped up. Only seconds after getting into the access corridor, the elevator came crashing downwards.

"Fuck," Seifer stared out into the elevator shaft for a moment and then turned to his companions. "That was close."

"Too close," Squall agreed, giving Seifer what appeared to be a faintly worried look. "Let's move out."

About ten minutes later, after far too much walking and descending a few ladders, they arrived at circular catwalk sitting atop what appeared to be an indoor lake of oil.

"That's horrible planning right there," Seifer complained, gesturing towards the oil everywhere.

"Seriously," Irvine agreed. "This place needs some major renovating. That ladder right there looks like it's rusted all the way through and the oil everywhere... this place is a fire hazard."

"Are you two done whining?" Squall asked, reaching out to give the ladder an experimental tug. "I'm going to see what's up there. You two wait here."

"Be careful," Seifer said, earning an inscrutable look from Squall.

"Yeah..." Squall started climbing.

Irvine snickered and smirked at Seifer, jerking his head in Squall's direction and waggling his eyebrows suggestively. Seifer crossed his arms, glared, and refused to look up. He wanted to ogle Squall's ass, but there was no way in hell he was going to do it while Irvine was standing there acting so smug.

A creaking noise, however, made both of them look up right as the ladder tore free from the wall and crashed through a window on the far wall. Hanging from the ladder by just his arms, Squall struggled to pull himself over onto the top of the now diagonal ladder.

"Squall!" Seifer shouted, his whole body tensing in fear.

"I'm fine," he called back, swinging his legs up onto the ladder and climbing onto the top side. Then he sort of collapsed against the rungs for a moment, taking deep breaths. "I'm fine," he repeated.

Seifer let out a breath he hadn't even realized he was holding. He forced himself to relax as Squall continued up the ladder towards the broken window. But all he wanted was for the brunet to rejoin him safely on the catwalk.

"You okay?" Irvine asked quietly.

"Y-yeah. I just thought... for a second..." Seifer leaned against the wall for a second, just trying to concentrate on his breathing.

"Damn... you really _are_ in love with him, aren't you?" Irvine sounded surprised. "I just thought it was... I dunno."

"Just shut up, Kinneas," Seifer snapped.

A few moments later Squall was climbing back down the ladder.

"That was close," Irvine said. "Glad you're okay. I thought Seifer was gonna have a heart attack when we saw the ladder fall." If looks could kill then Seifer's glare would have left an Irvine-shaped carbon scoring on the wall. As it was, all he achieved was a look of definite fear on Irvine's face. Squall simply looked between the two in confusion.

"You were worried?" Squall asked Seifer in surprise.

"You could have been killed," Seifer responded, some of his fear from that moment coming back to him. "I-we could have lost you."

"I'm fine," Squall repeated again, reaching out and brushing his fingertips lightly against Seifer's shoulder. "See?"

Seifer blushed as his heart sped up a little. _Thank Hyne for the bad lighting in here_, he thought while saying, "well, yeah..." His voice was still a little rough, though.

Swallowing in a nervous fashion, Squall turned around. "Come on, let's go. We've got work to do. The missiles could arrive any minute." Squall led the way to a new opening across one of the catwalks branching off the main one in the center of the room where they found yet another ladder. Fortunately this one was more sound than the last one Squall had been on. When they reached the bottom, the trio walked out into a room containing all sorts of strange gearwheels. "Looks like we're here..."

"Now what?" Irvine leaned over the railing to get a better look at the huge mechanism. "I wonder what all this is for?"

"We'll never know if we don't start hitting buttons," Seifer told the Cowboy.

"I hope there isn't a self-destruct somewhere on this panel," Irvine said, only halfway joking.

Squall gave Irvine an irked stare and then pressed the center switch twice. There was a moment of silence and then a grinding noise filled the air. Slowly, the giant gears began to turn and, with a jerk, the platform they were standing on began to rise.

Without meaning to, Seifer grabbed onto Squall's hand. Fortunately enough, Squall reacted to their upward momentum by reaching for Seifer. They held each other's hand tightly as the platform raced up faster and faster until it finally rose up through the floor of the Headmaster's office and came to a complete stop. It was only then that they reluctantly released their grips.

"A-are those the..." Irvine trailed off, pointing at the window where the missiles could be seen racing towards the Garden.

"Those would be the missiles," Squall confirmed, his voice deadly calm.

All Seifer could think as he watched the missiles streak closer was _we were too late._


	10. Chapter 9

Disclaimer – I don't own Final Fantasy_ VIII. _Too bad for me, huh?

A/N - Kit's allergies are acting up and her voice comes and goes in waves, apparently. She's a little worried it might turn into something worse (past experience with my own allergies leading to bronchitis in the Spring lead me to conclude she's not being overly dramatic) and has begun praising Halls Fruit Breezers for being 'candy for coughing people.' I, on the other hand, am having a surprisingly allergy-free March. That being said, I've probably jinxed myself for April.

Irvine has become an absolute joy to write. Between him and Seifer, there are now two deadpan snarkers to whom Kit and I may bestow our sarcastic tendencies upon. Of course, Squall becomes deadpan snarker number three every time he decides to be vocal... but that doesn't happen much in this chapter.

June 28, 2010 - Looking back, this is one of my favorite chapters so far. Deadpan snarkers make the world go round... anyway, I've gone back and fixed a few minor errors and updated the formatting.

_Chapter Nine_

Seifer watched in awe as the halo over Garden began descending towards them. Somehow it was able to move through the very walls of the building and caused rainbow colored lights to dance across the rooms. The halo was fast, though, and within moments had already passed on to the levels below.

"Woah," Irvine said, breaking the silence. "That was... pretty impressive."

"Yeah, but impressive light tricks don't stop missiles," Seifer responded. "They're getting closer."

The entire Garden lurched at that moment, knocking the trio off their feet. In the few moments that Seifer took to stand back up, the view from the giant window in front of them had changed. It was a subtle difference; the view was now higher and drawing away slowly.

"We're moving," Squall spoke up, sounding shocked. "Garden is... flying?"

"I'll be damned," Seifer breathed, relieved. He'd never been so relieved to be wrong. "If the Garden moves far enough before the missiles hit our original position, then the blast will push us away without causing much damage."

"Looks like we're gonna survive this after all." Irvine had chosen to remain sitting and was leaning against the railing tiredly. "Okay, I'm ready to go sleep for a week now."

"Adrenaline wearing off, huh?" Seifer asked with a laugh.

"Big time." Irvine pulled the brim of his hat down. "The missiles are about to hit."

Following the cowboy's example, Seifer covered his eyes and turned away from the blast. When the light faded, Seifer looked up to see that the world outside had been obscured by a huge cloud of dust and, just as he'd predicted, Garden had sped up.

"I can't believe it," Squall muttered, staring out the window in amazement. "Garden is _flying_."

Seifer grinned at the sound of delight that edged its way into Squall's voice. "This is awesome," he agreed, moving to lean over the controls in order to better see through the window. "Hyne..." the dust began to settle and Seifer felt a little giddy as he watched the edges of the halo, now acting as a some sort of giant repulsor lift.

"I see... so this is the secret..." Kramer's voice startled Seifer; the lift the Headmaster had come up on was silent, so he hadn't heard him come up.

"This is pretty amazing, Headmaster," Irvine commented. "Um... by the way, it's good to see you again, sir."

"I'm honored you remember me, son," Kramer said, sounding genuinely touched. Then, more generally, he commented, "I never even suspected Garden was hiding a secret like this."

Squall nodded in agreement. "I wonder what is going on outside?" he remarked idly.

"Let's check it out, then," Seifer suggested. "The balcony on the second floor should offer a better view."

"Good idea," Squall agreed. He held out a hand to Irvine and pulled the long-haired brunet to his feet. "Sir," he said, nodding at the Headmaster as he moved to join Seifer on the lift.

A few minutes later the three of them were out on the balcony. Seifer whistled in appreciation, unable to take his eyes off the scenery as they passed by.

"Ever had a dream where you were flying?" Irvine asked with a laugh. "This probably isn't that far off, is it?"

"It's probably the closest we'll ever get," Seifer agreed.

"I wish Selphie were here to see this." Irvine smiled a little sadly. "Do you think the team sent to the missile base are okay?"

"I think so," Squall told him. "Selphie, Quistis, and Zell will find their way back to us... I wouldn't have sent them if I didn't think they'd survive."

"Good. I..." Irvine was cut off as a cadet burst through the door and out onto the balcony.

"Uh, the Headmaster wants to see you three right away!"

* * *

Back on the bridge, the Headmaster was panicking. "Squall! The controls aren't responding! I don't know what to do! We're going to crash into the town of Balamb if we don't do something! Can you think of anything?"

Squall gave the Headmaster a rather dirty look, but didn't answer.

"Just turning this thing on was a fluke," Seifer spoke up. "None of us have a clue how to make this thing work."

"Time to hit random buttons again?" Irvine asked.

Nodding, Squall walked up to the control panel and started tapping buttons. Irvine joined him, thwacking a few switches to make them flip properly. Seifer, however, took a look at the panel. All the writing was in ancient Centran and he was suddenly regretting his decision not to take the course on the language that had been offered the year before. Reluctantly, Seifer tapped a few buttons a few buttons of his own.

As if by magic, the Garden swerved out of the way of the town, missing Balamb's outer wall by what was probably barely a foot. Seifer had no idea who was responsible for turning the flying military academy, but he figured it was likely a combination of what they'd been doing.

"We did it!" Irvine exclaimed in relief.

"Except now we're about to crash into the ocean," Seifer observed, his voice calm since he already knew that Garden would float. "So, does Garden sink or swim?"

"Swim," Irvine muttered, crossing his fingers.

Garden eased out onto the water without even so much as a hitch. Everyone breathed a sigh of relief.

"Squall, everyone, a job well done. I think the worst is behind us for now." Kramer grinned childishly and Seifer had the sudden urge to yell at the man over the state they'd found Garden in upon arriving. He had no reason to be happy when the place was in shambles because of him.

So while Seifer tried not to visibly fume, Squall asked the important question. "Where are we heading?"

Kramer shrugged. "We'll drift along for the time being...until we figure out how to maneuver the Garden. So, it looks like we can finally relax for a while... and spend some time considering what to do next."

"You should get someone who knows Ancient Centran up here to study the controls, then," Seifer advised in a rather clipped sounding tone. "All the markings are from that language."

"Good idea, Seifer," Kramer responded.

"Okay, so... where do I go to crash?" Irvine spoke up. "I wasn't kidding earlier about sleeping for a week."

"Irvine," Seifer turned to the cowboy, ignoring the Headmaster's praise. "You can crash on my couch until everything gets sorted out. Assigning you a room is likely going to be low priority for a while."

"So long as there are no loose springs and I don't wake up feeling like my neck will never be capable of movement ever again, that sounds great," Irvine responded.

* * *

Irvine departed for the dorms along with Squall, who also intended to get some sleep. Seifer had given Irvine directions to his dorm, and the code to open the lock, while they were taking the stairs. Squall had seemed a little surprised that Seifer hadn't bothered to be secretive about his dorm code, but didn't ask about it.

Honestly, Seifer didn't care if Squall knew the code. It wasn't like the brunet had klepto tendencies and, even if he did, Seifer had nothing worth stealing.

So while the other two went off to sleep, Seifer made his way to the carpool to find out how many people made it out of Garden before the building started flying. In the other time line, Fujin and Raijin had led a bunch of cadets and SeeDs to Balamb, which is how he'd finally managed to reconnect with them after being made Ultimecia's Knight. He was hopeful, though, that they'd stayed this time because he was here.

The garage was mostly empty by now, so it wasn't hard for Seifer to pick out Raijin's bulky presence in the crowd and, seconds later, spot Fujin's silver hair, which looked as though it had picked up a blue tinge from the way the lighting hit her outfit. Rinoa was with them, but that didn't surprise Seifer all that much. The girl had an underdeveloped sense of self-preservation... not that he had much room to speak on that topic.

"Seifer! Hey man, what's going on out there? We heard that Garden's flying, ya know?" Raijin asked as soon as Seifer got close enough to hear him.

"You've got to see it to believe it," Seifer confirmed. "The Headmaster sent Squall, Kinneas, and myself down into the abandoned levels in Garden and we found an old control panel. One we started it up, this place raised off the ground and flew out of the way of the missiles. We're actually coasting over the ocean right now."

"Amazing..." Fujin breathed, clearly eager to see for herself.

"Right before what must have been take off, something came through the ceiling and down through the floor," Rinoa added. "When that happened, the doors leading outside shut and locked automatically." Glancing around behind Seifer, she asked, "where's Squall and Irvine?"

"Squall's gone to his dorm to over-think everything and I let Kinneas borrow my couch until the housing situation gets sorted out," Seifer shrugged at the sight of Fuu and Rai's surprised expressions. They'd only seen Irvine for a few moments, so neither really knew what to think of Seifer letting someone who was, as far as they knew, a stranger stay in his room while he went off to do other stuff. He'd explain later, though, when Rinoa wasn't standing there staring at them.

"I need a longer explanation for what was happening when we arrived here." Seifer told his posse. "It can wait, though. Come with me first." Seifer didn't comment when Rinoa tagged along, though he found it a little annoying. He took them to the second floor balcony, though, and Rinoa deserved to take a look at Garden's newfound – or newly rediscovered, really – flight capabilities.

"It's so beautiful." Rinoa looked gorgeous standing on the balcony, the wind blowing through her hair, and the sun lighting up her already bright smile. One day, when Rinoa finally embraced maturity, she was going to make some man very happy. But that guy wouldn't be Squall and _that_ made Seifer happy.

Gazing over the side of the balcony, Seifer watched the reflection of the sun, which was close to setting, color the water in various shades of orange, red, and even purple. It really was quite beautiful.

"We received word about the failed assassination attempt on the Sorceress," Fujin said quietly, launching into the more detailed explanation Seifer had asked for. "NORG was furious, but Kramer seemed... relieved. Under NORG's orders, the Shumi Guardians teamed up with Garden Security to arrest the Headmaster so that he could be presented to the Sorceress as an apology, but Kramer refused to go quietly into lockup. That was when Security stepped in and tried to apprehend him. Xu kicked their asses and ordered the evacuation of the younger cadets to Balamb. The instructors oversaw that. Xu then ordered that anyone loyal to Kramer set up decoys while she stashed the Headmaster somewhere safe. The fighting broke out not long after that when Security started attacking the decoy positions and arresting anyone who professed loyalty to the Headmaster. The Shumi brought out some of the monsters from the training center and set them on anyone who wouldn't immediately acknowledge NORG as Garden's true leader."

"So much for Garden Security actually keeping this place safe," Seifer grumbled. "What happened... never should have in the first place. Kramer's let Garden get out of control because he's been too mousy to stand up to NORG until now."

"Yeah... it felt like everything was falling apart, ya know?" Raijin sounded sad. "I mean, I'm gonna leave soon to learn the fishing trade at FH, but... this place is home. People aren't supposed to fight like that at home, ya know?"

"AFFIRMATIVE," Fujin agreed.

"All the Shumi and Security SeeD were going to do was put Kramer in a cell, right?" Seifer waited for confirmation before walking to the balcony's exit.

"Where are you going?" Rinoa asked.

"I'm going to put my home back in order," Seifer responded obliquely.

* * *

After a brief stop at the infirmary to chat with Dr. Kadowaki, Seifer climbed back up to the third floor. He couldn't wait until the elevator finally got fixed; the stairs were cramped little things designed to slowly cause people to develop claustrophobia.

SeeD were crawling all over the Headmaster's office, so Seifer lured Kramer outside on the pretense of having volunteered to play messenger for Kadowaki. It was a blatant lie – Seifer never played messenger for anyone – but the Headmaster was too keyed up from the excitement of being on a flying Garden to realize that he was being played.

Once out of earshot of the office, Seifer began delivering a message that was wholly his own. "The casualty report," Seifer began, a vindictive feeling sparking at the sight of Kramer's guilty expression, "is seventeen major injuries, though only one person sustained enough damage to require surgery, fourteen minor injuries. Over half of the injured are cadets in their last three years in the academy. There was one fatality."

Kramer stiffened. "Due to the Garden's changing circumstances..." he began, clearly gearing up to lie to himself with some lame excuse.

"Due to your refusal to sit your ass in a cell block. The only injury attributable to Garden lifting off and flying is a minor concussion." Seifer let his voice take on the 'calm, but deadly' tone that always scared the hell out of the junior members of the Disciplinary Committee. "NORG didn't order you killed; he ordered your arrest. But your stubborn pride... Hyne, I knew the kid who died. He graduated early last year and was so fucking full of himself, but he _earned_ that. Now he's dead because you never put Garden before yourself.

"After all, you made Garden for Matron so we owe you, right?" Seifer made the question as mocking as possible. "Garden doesn't belong to you or to NORG. It belongs to those of us who grew up here and strove to earn the right to stay here. Maybe it's time you started considering handing the reigns over to someone who cares more about the people than the mission."

"Like you?" Kramer snarled. "You've overstepped your boundaries, Sergeant Almasy."

"I'd be a terrible person to lead Garden. I'm far too impulsive," Seifer responded, still calm. "As for overstepping my boundaries..." he shrugged. "Someone has to tell you that you're doing a crap job. Today a SeeD died within these very walls. He didn't die because it was an accident or he was on a mission... his death might as well have been murder. It's not the first time crimes have been committed by SeeD against SeeD.

"This time the victim's name was Jack Green. Tell me, Headmaster, who else has to die so that you can ride in and play the Knight for your possessed wife?" Seifer watched Kramer freeze up and he left the Headmaster there to think about what happened.

Disappearing into the tiny staircase room, Seifer took a seat on the top step and let his legs stretch out. Though nothing would ever make him stop feeling proud about his tactical abilities during the other time line's fight between Balamb and Galbadia Gardens, Seifer did wonder just how many people he'd known who died that day. It was immaterial now since, obviously, they were still alive in this run through, but still... it left a painful feeling in the center of his chest.

Worse, though, was knowing that he was capable of doing the one thing the Headmaster could not. When he'd followed Edea in the other timeline, Seifer had been searching for a way to make things better. Zell's words had damned Garden for Seifer's actions. Yet there was this crazy woman offering him a way to stop feeling torn and helpless. He hadn't believed her promises that everything would turn out okay for him, but he had believed that going with her would solve the problem of how to save Squall, Quistis, Zell, Selphie, and all of Garden. If he went with her – if he took all the blame on himself as he ought to – then no one else would get hurt.

The Headmaster hadn't been able to manage the same. Even if Kramer had thought his life was at stake... he had no excuse. He didn't have magic screwing with his head, a manipulative voice promising him his dreams, or even subtle brainwashing. He was just... a coward.

"Hopefully I just convinced Kramer to retire," Seifer muttered, forcing himself to stand back up and descend to the first floor. He was tired and was really hoping that the cowboy on his couch didn't snore.

* * *

Irvine did not snore. Hyne was clearly feeling merciful that evening.

Seifer managed to sleep in until ten-thirty the next morning. That was when Fujin and Raijin invaded his SeeD dorm, introduced themselves to Irvine, and started a pot of coffee. The smell of the caffeinated beverage drew the blonde man out of his dreams and back into the real world. Of course, Seifer's dreams had involved Squall. Only the fact that Fujin was a truly violent force of nature kept him from kicking everyone out into the hall and going back to sleep.

Since he was starving – he'd missed basically every meal since waking up in the prison – Seifer immediately headed to the cafeteria and managed to cajole one of the cooks into making some extra breakfast for him, Irvine, and Squall. He was about to send Fujin off to find Squall when the brunet was dragged in by a chattering Rinoa.

Upon spotting Seifer, Squall pried Rinoa's hands off of his arm and he made a beeline for the blonde. "She won't leave me alone," he hissed, glancing nervously at the Galbadian 'Princess' as she purchased something to drink.

"I was just about to look for you, anyway," Seifer responded with a grin. Taking a seat at the table, he gestured for Squall to take the seat between Seifer and Irvine, which would force Rinoa to sit beside Fujin on the opposite side of the table. "Thought you might be hungry," Seifer added, pointing to the food.

"Starving," Squall admitted, sitting down next to Seifer. "Thanks..." he trailed off as one of the Shumi Guardians walked up to their table.

"You three are the SeeD who returned from Galbadia, correct?" the Guardian asked, giving Seifer, Squall, and Irvine and inscrutable look from beneath his giant, floppy hat.

"Yeah," Seifer responded while Squall said "yes" and Irvine got Squall's elbow in his ribs when he started to explain that he wasn't actually a SeeD yet.

"The Garden Master wishes to see the three of you. Report to the Master's room right away.

"Where is the... Master's Room?" Squall asked uncertainly.

"It's on basement level 1," Seifer answered. "We'll need the current clearance code to get down there."

"It has yet to be altered since your change in status," the Guardian told him. He then turned and walked off.

"I don't care how fast NORG want's us to show up," Seifer declared, attacking his pancakes with the silverware on his tray. "I didn't have anything to eat yesterday, we spent the whole day fighting, and postponing a meeting with the crazy Shumi in the basement who refuses to acknowledge that he needs a hearing aide sounds like the only sane option at this point."

There was a pause as Rinoa sat down to join them and, sensing the tension that had come over the group, wisely kept silent.

"I agree," Squall said quietly. "But... what do you mean about him needing a hearing aide?"

"NORG shouts everything he says, ya know?" Raijin spoke up. "It's enough to give people migraines, ya know?"

"I've already got a headache from not eating anything yesterday," Irvine complained. "This ain't gonna fun."

* * *

"Please! Listen to me!" The Headmaster's anguished voice echoing through the basement greeted the trio as they walked out of the elevator, which had been fixed sometime that morning. They were about half-an-hour late, but apparently Kramer had been monopolizing NORG's time anyway. "Let go of me! I'm not finished!" Two of the Shumi Guardians came around the corner, dragging Kramer with them. "Greedy son-of-a-bitch," he ranted. "Why did I even bother talking to you! SeeDs were brought up for the future! And that future is now! Why can't you understand!"

Jerking free of the Guardians, the Headmaster ran back to the opening between the room the elevator arrived in and the one where Seifer knew NORG sat in his throne-like pod. "Dammit! I should've never trusted you! I wish I could go back ten or so years. To tell myself that you're nothing but a money grubbing son-of-a-bitch! Then I would've never built this place."

"And once again, it's all about you," Seifer muttered in annoyance. He ignored the looks that Squall and Irvine shot him as they moved away from the elevator's closed doors.

Turning to leave, the Headmaster started in surprise at seeing the three of them walking towards him. "Squall! You heard everything?"

Squall nodded slowly, looking distinctly uncomfortable. "...Yes."

"I'm embarrassed, but sometimes even old men like me lose their temper." Throwing a glare over his shoulder, he added, "let's get out of here."

"Sir, I still have to give you my report," Squall said stiffly.

"Please come to my office later." Breezing past the trio, Kramer hurried into the elevator.

"I feel completely superfluous," Irvine grumbled as the two Shumi walked up to the three teens.

"It's about time you arrived. Master NORG has been waiting for you. Come." Turning away sharply, the Guardians led the way into the next room. The spokesperson continued speaking as he took them to the front of NORG's pod. "Whenever Master NORG calls you, be sure to be there within 3 seconds."

"Fushururu... 3-SECONDS-ARE-UP." NORG's pod opened, startling Squall and Irvine, who'd never dealt with NORG's theatrics before.

"Kind of pretentious, isn't he?" Seifer asked in a stage whisper.

"Fushifuru... ALMASY-WILL-REMAIN-SILENT," NORG snarled. Seifer just smirked. "Fushifuru... GIVE-YOUR-REPORT-ON-THE-SORCERESS," NORG demanded, turning his attention to Squall.

Squall froze, uncertain of how to answer in the face of NORG and his unusual manner of speaking. The Guardian spokesman wasn't very understanding though as he told Squall to "answer him quickly. Be concise."

"We failed to assassinate Sorceress Edea." Squall finally said, glancing at the Guardian who kept telling him what to do. "Confirmation of Headmaster Cid's order was made at Galbadia Garden. After Irvine Kinneas of Galbadia Garden joined our party, we set off to carry out the 'Sorceress Assassination' order from Balamb and Galbadia Gardens..."

NORG interrupted Squall at that point, roaring louder than ever in rage. "Bujurururu! BALAMB-AND-GALBADIA'S-ORDERS! Bujurururu! YOU-WERE- FOOLED!"

"I don't understand," Squall objected.

Seifer thought he knew where this was going, though. When this encounter was over, Kramer was going to have a hell of a lot of explaining to do.

"Fushurururu..." NORG waved his overly large hand at the spokesperson-subordinate. "EXPLAIN-TO-THEM."

The Guardian shuffled his feet nervously and avoided actually looking at the three of them as he said, "Master NORG has known about the alliance between the President of Galbadia and the sorceress. He heard it from the Galbadia Garden master himself."

"The Galbadian Garden master...?" Squall trailed off in confusion.

"Martine," Seifer picked up the explanation, much to the Guardian's relief. The Shumi Guardians didn't like Martine for reasons that Seifer didn't know about and didn't care to learn of. "Unlike Headmaster Kramer, Martine is in charge of all aspects of Galbadia Garden. He was never stupid enough to agree to a joint partnership. So he could be called the Garden Master despite the fact that his only title is Headmaster."

"Oh," Squall nodded slowly.

"The sorceress and Garden are closely connected," the Guardian said, picking back up the thread of the conversation. "That is why the sorceress will definitely try to gain hold of all Gardens. So, Master NORG sent an official order to Galbadia Garden. It was to kill the sorceress. An assassination was thought to be the best means. But..."

"Bujurururu!" NORG's shouting grew even louder as he shrieked hatefully about Martine. "THAT-SLY-WEASEL-MARTINE-USED-YOU-AS-A-LAST-RESORT-FOR-THE-ASSASSINATION. HE-GAVE-THAT-ORDER-TO-PLACE-THE-BLAME-ON-ME! THAT-BASTARD!"

Squall looked pretty pissed off himself. "Are you saying that Balamb Garden had nothing to do with that order?"

"More like he's saying that he sent the order without Kramer's knowledge and then tried to pin the blame on Kramer," Seifer said quietly. "Technically the orders came from Balamb Garden, but they weren't meant for us, were they?"

"You just happened to show up just before the mission was to be carried out. They used you. But the operation failed. The sorceress is still alive and..." the spokesperson finally looked over at the other Guardian, who jumped in to take over the explanation.

"The sorceress retaliated. Just as we suspected. No doubt, it was the sorceress who ordered the missile attacks. Something must be done to calm the sorceress' anger. In order to do so, we needed to hand over those involved in the assassination to the sorceress. We had to show Balamb Garden's sincerity."

Squall immediately cottoned on to what was being implied. "Wait a minute. That's just..."

NORG laughed manically. "Bujurururu! OFFER-THE-SeeD's-HEADS-ON-A-SILVER-PLATTER-AND-PRETEND-WE-OBEY-THE-SORCERESS!

"Wha... Why aren't we fighting the sorceress!" Hands curling into fists, Squall stepped forward, demanding answers. "What about all the training we endure everyday! What good is it!"

"WHAT-DID-YOU-SAY! YOU-LOST-TO-THE-SORCERESS! QUIT-YOUR-WHINING!" NORG didn't seem to notice the way the three of them were subtly checking their weapons. The faculty members, however, were less oblivious.

The original spokesman sounded nervous as he said, "Headmaster Cid was saying the same thing..."

"H-hey, don't mention..." the second one started to say, only to be interrupted by an irate NORG.

"Bujurururu! CID!" In their infinite wisdom, the Guardians took the opportunity to run away, abandoning Seifer, Squall, and Irvine to deal with NORG's wrath. "THAT-IDIOT-CID-DISPATCHED-SeeD-TO-KILL-THE-SORCERESS. AND-IF-YOU-FAIL? THIS-GARDEN-WILL-BE-DONE-FOR! MY-GARDEN! IT-WILL-ALL-BE-OVER! THAT-IDIOT-CID. HAS-HE-FORGOTTEN-THAT-IT-WAS-I-WHO-PUT-UP-THE-MONEY-TO-ESTABLISH-GARDEN! I-WANTED-TO-OFFER-THE-SORCERESS-CID'S-HEAD-ALONG-WITH-SeeD'S. I-ORDERED-THE-STUDENTS-TO-FIND-CID-BUT-THEY-SIDED-WITH-HIM! Bujurururu! Bujurururu! THIS-IS-MY-GARDEN!"

"NO! It's not just yours!" Seifer blinked, surprised by the vehemence in Squall's tone... and perhaps a bit turned on by it. Now wasn't the time to consider that, though. NORG was finally getting to the good part.

"Bujurururu! THEN-WHAT-IS-IT! IS-IT-CID'S-AND-EDEA'S! THAT-PATHETIC-MARRIED-COUPLE'S!"

"What..." Squall seemed rather thrown by NORG's pronouncement; unfortunately, remembering Orphanage didn't mean that he remembered who Matron was, too. He probably didn't remember that Kramer had anything to do with the orphanage either...

"Bushurururu...NOW-I-UNDERSTAND. CID-AND-EDEA-ARE-TRYING-TO-TAKE-GARDEN-AWAY-FROM-ME. YOU'RE-ONE-OF-CID'S-FOLLOWERS-AREN'T-YOU! PREPARE-TO-DIE!"

"Moron," Seifer muttered as NORG hid himself away in his pod.

"What the hell is he doing?" Irvine asked right before one of the pod's automated defenses shot a laser at him. The cowboy ducked, rolling out of the way, but his hat disappeared from sight in the opposite direction. "Son of a bitch! I love that hat."

"I'm sure it's your one, true, soul mate, Kinneas," Seifer deadpanned as he attacked some of the pod's cabling.

Squall followed Seifer's example and went after the wires. "Irvine, when the pod reopens, I want you to make it perfectly clear to NORG that he's not in charge anymore."

"Yeah, sure, you betcha," Irvine responded, putting a few bullets in the pod's more noticeable defense systems.

A few seconds later, one of the gunbladers cut an important wire and the pod opened again as the defenses shut off. Irvine shot at the left of NORG's head and let Squall give out threats.

"You will not be handing us, or Headmaster Cid, over to Galbadia," Squall told NORG calmly, moving to stand in front of the overgrown Shumi. "We are going to fight back against the Sorceress and we are going to win. If you have a problem with that, then you can feel free to leave Garden as soon as we manage to land somewhere."

Oh, yeah, Squall was definitely sexy when he got impassioned about something. Unfortunately, impassioned or not, Squall's words were not making any impression on the Shumi. Irvine's scare-shot hadn't done any good either.

"Bushururu... I-WILL-NOT-SURRENDER-MY-GARDEN-TO-FAILURES! YOU-HAVE-NOT-BEATEN-ME-YET!" NORG then followed up that statement with what had to be a Thundaga.

Squall braced for impact, but NORG hadn't been aiming for him. Instead, the lightning hit Seifer, tearing a scream of pain from him as the electricity crackled through his body and made his nerves feel as though they were being set on fire. It only lasted a few moments, but the attack left Seifer dizzy and he had to use his Hyperion to brace himself for a few seconds while he got himself back under control.

The look on Squall's face when Seifer looked up was truly frightening. NORG didn't stand a chance as Squall leapt forward, attacking the Shumi with his gunblade while Irvine, who looked rather pissed off as well, shot his rifle a few times. The end result was a very dead Garden Master NORG.

There was a long moment of silence as the three of them took stock of what just happened.

"We're gonna go to jail, aren't we?" Irvine finally asked. "I mean, we just killed the Garden Master..."

"In self defense," Seifer cut in. "NORG is... was paranoid. This whole place is covered by half-a-dozen security cameras and what they capture is saved to disk. If anyone doubts that he attacked us and we were defending ourselves, the recordings will back us up. So stop panicking, Kinneas."

"Seifer's right," Squall no longer had the enraged expression on his face, but he sounded a little... disconnected from what was going on. "We... need to report what just happened to the Headmaster," he added quietly, sheathing his gunblade.

Irvine nodded, retrieving his fallen hat before they left the room.

* * *

Once they found the Headmaster, who'd been crying in the infirmary, Squall reported what happened in Galbadia and the recent events with NORG to the Headmaster. After dismissing basically everything they'd said, dodging all questions about himself and Edea, and generally implying that he didn't care whether NORG had been killed in self defense or not so long as the menace was finally dead, Cid left for the Headmaster's Office. He took Squall with him and used the intercom to instruct Xu to meet them there.

"He was ignoring you rather pointedly there, Seifer," Irvine observed quietly. "What did you do to piss off the Headmaster so much?"

"I may have bluntly informed him that he's not fit to be Garden's leader anymore," Seifer told him as they wandered out of the infirmary. "Since I haven't been fired yet, he must have taken it better than I thought he would." Both of them were holding a sucker in their hands, courtesy of Doctor Kadowaki, and Seifer was pretty certain that the cowboy was having the same mental debate with himself that Seifer was having.

Was the deliciousness of the candy worth being seen wandering around with a sucker sticking out of his mouth?

Reluctantly, Seifer shoved the sucker into his pocket. He'd eat it later.

"Seifer!" Fujin ran up to him from around the corner, followed closely by Raijin. "TROUBLE!"

"What's going on?" Seifer and Irvine chorused simultaneously.

"There's a ship approaching and it might be Galbadians, ya know?" Raijin answered. "The Sorceress might aboard and intending to attack. We gotta tell the Headmaster, ya know? Is he here?"

"No, he's in his office with Squall and Xu," Seifer responded. "Kinneas..."

"I'll go report this to the Headmaster while you go check this out with your posse," Irvine cut in with a grin. "I've had about all the excitement I could possibly deal with today." He took off at a run, disappearing in the direction of the elevator.

"Where do you think the ship will try to dock with us?" Seifer asked Fujin.

"The second floor balcony is the most likely place," she told him. "How'd your meeting with the Garden Master go?"

"Oh, he wanted to hand us off to the Galbadians so that we'd get executed for attempting to assassinate the Sorceress," Seifer responded idly. "We fought back and NORG's no longer among the breathing."

"WHAT!" both Fuu and Rai yelled.

Sighing, Seifer began to explain as they made their way to the second floor.

A/N - Kit and I debated over Spring Break whether or not NORG should survive, but we didn't want to deal with figuring out how to convince him to leave Garden. So... we killed him. There will be mention of the Shumi having some sort of memorial for him later, but there won't be any fallout from his death. He attacked them and no one liked NORG anyway.

Now, if you'll excuse me... I'm gonna go make myself some delicious tacos for dinner. Yum! ^_^


	11. Chapter 10

Disclaimer – If Kit and I owned FFVIII, this is how close to how the game would have played out. Since this is clearly AU, we obviously can't claim any ownership.

A/N – It wasn't until Kit and I started working on the scene where Seifer and Squall confront Ellone that I realized just how unethical her actions were throughout the game. In order to achieve her goals, Ellone ignored the rights of her foster siblings, effectively violated their minds, and forced them to endure inexplicable trips into the past without explanation. While Ellone's intentions were not evil, her methods were comparable to Ultimecia's. As the game progresses Ellone compromises her own morality and remains completely oblivious to the fact that what she's doing is terribly wrong.

I honestly don't know whether I feel sorry for her or not.

_Chapter 10_

Dressed in rather pretentious looking white uniforms, the SeeD from the ship didn't appear all too impressed by the welcoming committee that greeted them. Then again, Seifer, Fujin, and Raijin weren't all that impressed with the White SeeD.

Those uniforms had to be murder to keep clean.

"Is Headmaster Cid here!" asked one of the SeeD. He was shorter than Seifer, yet he still managed to look down his nose at Seifer as he spoke.

"Do any of us _look _like Headmaster Kramer?" Seifer asked dryly. The SeeD who asked rolled his eyes and muttered something inaudible. Seifer, however, was talented at reading lips and he didn't appreciate being called a 'plebeian.' "Look, if you ask a stupid question then you're going to get a stupid answer. Either tell us who you are and what you want or get the hell out of here."

"We are SeeDs!" the guy glowered at Seifer as he snapped out his response. "This is Edea's ship. We are Sorceress Edea's SeeD!"

"That's nice," Seifer drawled. "Now, what do you want?"

"We must speak to Headmaster Cid. Where is he?" the annoying White SeeD demanded.

"I'm right here," Kramer spoke up. Seifer glanced back at the Headmaster, who was flanked by Squall, Xu, and Irvine, and then moved out of his way. "I was wondering when you'd arrive for her."

"It's become too dangerous for Ellone to remain here," the SeeD said.

"Yes," Kramer agreed. "I'm afraid so." Looking over at Squall, the Headmaster told him, "Squall, please go find Ellone. She's here somewhere in the Garden." When Squall hesitated, Kramer asked, "you know who she is, right?"

"Yes," Squall responded stiffly, turning sharply and leaving.

"Well, I'm sure you two can keep things in order for me," Seifer muttered to Fujin and Raijin before ducking out after Squall. He managed to catch up with Squall at the elevator and get inside before the doors shut. Squall seemed to be lost within his own world, barely acknowledging Seifer's presence. "Ellone... her name's familiar," Seifer observed leadingly. He got no answer from Squall, so Seifer tried again. "Wasn't she at Orphanage with us?"

"Huh?" Squall's eyes came back into focus and he looked startled. "Ellone... was at Orphanage with us?"

"Yeah... at least I think she was." Seifer shrugged. "There was an older girl there that I remember. We all called her 'Sis,' but I think I remember Matron calling her Elle a few times."

"I don't remember," Squall said after a moment. "I only really remember you at Orphanage. Everyone else is a blur."

"We were pretty young," Seifer shrugged. "It's not a big deal, if that's bugging you."

"Not really... Ellone was in the 'dream world.' She was this little girl that Laguna was doting on."

"Oh..." Seifer paused as the doors opened and they walked out of the elevator. "Do you think that maybe Ellone's responsible for sending you and the others to the 'dream world?'"

"Maybe."

"She always had her nose in a book," Seifer offered. "If she's the same Ellone we knew, that is. So we should check the library first."

Squall just nodded, refusing to look Seifer in the eyes.

Seifer let that last about halfway to the library, but he wasn't feeling particularly patient at the moment. It wasn't even noon yet and he'd already been electrocuted by an angry Shumi, been worried over by a kindly Doctor, and annoyed by pretentious seafarers. He simply wasn't in the right frame of mind to deal with a moody Squall. "What's wrong?"

"I'm fine," Squall responded automatically.

"Then why do you look like someone shot a puppy in front of you?"

Squall stopped mid-stride and turned to stare uncomprehendingly at Seifer. He even made eye contact. "What?"

"You've been a million miles away ever since we left the basement level. What's with you?"

"I..." Squall bit his lip and Seifer tried his damnedest not to stare. He stared anyway. "He... NORG... when he attacked you..." Squall's mouth clicked shut.

"You don't have to tell me if you don't want to talk about it right now," Seifer finally said after a long moment of awkward silence. "Just try to keep your head in the game for a little while, okay? Those White SeeD think they're better than us just because they have to get new uniforms every time they get dirt or blood smudged on those ridiculous looking outfits. Let's find Ellone, hand her over to them, and get rid of the pompous jackasses, shall we?"

A faint smile tugged at Squall's mouth. "Our uniform does look better," Squall conceded. "Black's a more practical color."

"Exactly."

"So why is your favorite coat white?" Squall smirked as they started walking again.

"It's light gray and has simply faded from use," he defended, glancing at the sleeve of his beloved coat.

"Uh-huh. Of course it is."

"I think I liked it better when you didn't talk," Seifer sulked. To his hidden delight, Squall actually laughed a little. One of the cadets passing by them stilled at the sound and stared at the duo in shocked awe. Fortunately, Squall didn't notice the girl's gaze.

_Squall has a nice laugh,_ Seifer thought, grinning like an idiot. _He really ought to laugh more._

Once in the library, it didn't take them long to find Ellone. She was a small, fragile looking woman, but her appearance did not appear to be deceiving the way that Fujin's was. Ellone was likely the sort of woman who'd always need someone else to defend her. Yet, considering the way she'd been raised by the Kramers, Seifer couldn't bring himself to fault her for it.

"Are you... Ellone?" Squall asked.

"Yes," Ellone responded, standing up with an excited smile. "Squall, Seifer, it's so good to see the two of you."

"You know Laguna, don't you?" Squall asked, though Seifer couldn't tell what answer he was hoping for.

"I do." Ellone's eyes lit up. "I really love Uncle Laguna."

"Then tell me! What is it that we experience!" the desperation in Squall's voice startled Seifer. Until that moment, Seifer hadn't realized just how much the 'dream world' experiences were truly bothering Squall. Leaving Squall in the dark about why she was doing this to him, or even when she'd do it again, was unthinkingly cruel of her.

Suddenly Seifer felt deeply disturbed by Ellone's casual use, and abuse, of her power.

"I'm sorry, Squall. It's hard to explain. But...one thing... it's about the past." Ellone looked genuinely sorry, but it was obvious she had no intention of stopping. "People say you can't change the past. But even still, if there's a possibility, it's worth a try, right?"

Squall's hands clenched into fists and he demanded, "are you the one responsible! Are you the one taking us to that 'dream world?'"

"I'm sorry."

"You have to stop it, Ellone," Seifer said softly, gaining her attention – her full attention – for the first time. "What you're doing... every time you send Squall and the others into that 'dream world' you potentially put them at risk in the present. Whatever your goal is, it's not worth achieving if you have to compromise yourself to attain it."

"Compromise myself..." Ellone echoed, uncomprehendingly. "Seifer, what do you mean?"

"It would be obvious if you weren't so obsessed," Seifer told her, feeling a little sad. He understood her desire to change the past. After all, he'd done the time warp thing himself. But Ellone's powers seemed different than the power of whoever had chosen to return him to the past. Instead, Ellone's magic and methods seemed closer to Ultimecia's, which was more than a little disquieting.

"I'm sorry, Seifer, but I don't understand what you're getting at. I can't stop," she added, sounding a little like a gambling addict. "I'm so close to changing everything."

Squall frowned at Ellone and shook his head. "Don't count on me. You may want to change the past, but I don't. Everything that I am comes from the life I've lived up until now. I..." Squall glanced over at Seifer, but only for the briefest of seconds. "I wouldn't change anything, Ellone."

"But you've always been so lonely here, Squall," Ellone protested. "What... what if you could have had a happy family?"

"You don't know me anymore," Squall told her firmly. "I don't remember you." Ellone flinched at his words. "My life is here. Even if you don't understand me... could you at least try to respect that fact?"

Xu walked up and addressed Squall, breaking the moment. "Squall, did you find Ellone?"

"Umm... I'm Ellone."

Xu looked over the three of them for a long moment. "Is everything okay here?"

"We seemed to have reached an impasse." Seifer gave Ellone an annoyed look. "You really ought to get out more."

"I'm leaving on a SeeD ship in the middle of the ocean," Ellone responded jokingly. "How much more 'out' can I get?"

Seifer just stared at her stonily until she left.

"Are you two going to see her off?" Xu asked. "How... do you two know Ellone, anyway?"

"We're not going to see her off," Squall replied. "How we know her is none of your business."

"Xu... would you tell Fujin and Raijin I want to meet them at the cafeteria? Kinneas, too."

"Yeah, sure. Squall, the Headmaster wants to continue his discussion with us once Ellone is gone. Would you wait in his office?" Squall merely nodded. Satisfied, Xu hurried off after Ellone.

* * *

Garden's arrival at Fisherman's Horizon was spectacular to be sure. After all, they crashed into the side of FH's rather extensive pier system. Seifer had no idea how they were supposed to fix this rather impressive public relations nightmare, but he was rather looking forward to finding out. He was curious in a sort morbid manner; it was like when there was a particularly impressive car wreck and people gathered around to see how it would finish playing out. As luck would have it, Seifer was one of the two people that Squall sought out to join him and Xu in offering Garden's sincerest apologies to the locals.

"Our orders are to enter Fisherman's Horizon, make an official apology, and then observe the town," Squall told Seifer and Irvine as they followed Squall onto the balcony where Xu was waiting.

"Actually, the Headmaster..." Xu trailed off for a moment and the shook her head slowly, as if remembering something unpleasant. "The Headmaster told you to wander around and enjoy the sights," Xu corrected, amusement tinging her expression.

Hopping over the side of the balcony and onto the rigging, Seifer watched the 'welcoming party' tense up with worry. Of the two, both of them equally nondescript, it was the man wearing a red shirt who decided to be brave and speak to them.

"Here they come," the red shirt told his fellow fisher. "We've come to warn you before you go ashore. Do not engage in any type of armed conflict in the city. We do not tolerate belligerence here. Do you understand?"

"Yes," Xu answered, her voice brittle from irritation. "We are representatives of the Garden and we come in peace."

Mister red shirt gave her a look that plainly stated just how much he didn't believe that. "Welcome to Fisherman's Horizon," he, too, spoke in a rather clipped tone. "We just call it FH. You should go visit the mayor. His house is in the middle of the city."

The guy in the yellow shirt finally worked up the courage to say, "he's the head of FH."

"No shit, Sherlock," Seifer mumbled, just barely soft enough for Squall, Irvine, and, possibly, Xu to hear.

"We'll do just that," Xu assured the men, glancing back at Seifer to glare at him briefly.

Tuning out the conversation, Seifer memorized the route back to Garden, tried to appear vaguely non-threatening to the skittish locals, and wonder just what the hell their problem was, anyway. As far as Seifer knew, FH had never had contact with any of the Gardens before. There was no reason for them to act like plague carriers had just stormed their quaint little town.

"I can't believe this is where Rai want's to move," Seifer muttered, giving into his irritation once they were halfway across the walkway to the Mayor's house. He would have elaborated, but Xu sent him another glare and Squall joined in this time. Seifer felt it was keeping quiet might be a good idea at that point.

A few minutes later they were seated, on the floor, in the Mayor's house. Surrounding them were a bunch of potted plants that Squall and Irvine didn't seem to recognize, but Seifer immediately identified as marijuana. Judging by the bemused expression that Xu briefly got, she knew what the plants were, too.

"Allow me to get to the point. When are you leaving?" The Mayor clearly wasn't pulling any verbal punches.

"We'll leave as soon as the Garden is capable of moving," Squall spoke up.

Unsurprisingly, Squall's answer wasn't specific enough for the Mayor's tastes. "Any idea when?"

"We only discovered that our Garden was capable of self-transportation yesterday," Xu explained with far more patience than Seifer was feeling. "The control board uses ancient Centran; we're still in the process of deciphering the text."

"Our technicians will assist you." Mayor Dobe couldn't sound more anxious to be rid of them if he tried. "They should be able to repair and service everything. How does that sound?"

"I'm authorized to negotiate on Garden's behalf for the necessary repairs and services," Xu told him.

"We don't want military organizations in FH," the Mayor told them." You rely on force to solve problems. That is in direct defiance of our principles."

The Mayor's wife added, "we believe that any problem can be settled by discussion. If you reach a mutual understanding there is no need to fight." She was gazing at them sadly, as though they were slow children who'd never understand.

"So what happens if the people you're trying to talk to ignore you?" Seifer rolled his eyes when he was pinned with three glares from his side and one from the Mayor.

"We're quite fast runners," the lady replied with a laugh, her eyes lighting up a little. "Most people don't bother to ask us questions like that. They just assume we're completely nuts... or high," she added the last part while giving the marijuana plants a pointed look. Seifer got the feeling her husband did most of the smoking.

Smiling, Seifer told her, "the only problem I have with the nonviolence mindset is when it's taken so far as to preclude self-defense. Otherwise," he shrugged, "it's still not my thing, but I can see why others find it appealing. Unfortunately, it depends on the people you're talking to reacting rationally."

"True. Irrational reactions are more common place than rational ones." Pausing and growing curious, she asked, "if you weren't a mercenary, what would you be?"

"Uh..." Seifer paused in surprise, then figured 'what the hell' and said, "I guess I'd be in law-enforcement somewhere."

"Not the army?"

"I don't like most armies," Seifer told her honestly.

"Well, what if we were living in a utopian society and there was no need for law-enforcement?" She looked expectant.

"I'd be a guitarist in a rock band," Seifer declared, much to the lady's amusement. "Though, the reason such an imaginary society gets referred to as utopian is because it doesn't exist," he added.

"You've just completely bulldozed the dumb-mercenary stereotype," the Mayor's wife declared with a laugh. "Now Micheal has to actually attempt to act respectful."

"Violence only leads to more violence." The Mayor sounded like he was whining as he glanced at his wife unhappily. "We believe your presence here will attract violence. That's why we want you to leave as soon as possible." His wife swatted him over the head. "Flo!"

"Stop being rude. Yes, their Garden crashed into our home, but that was an accident. These people have done no violence here and they've promised to refrain from conducting any violence without our permission," Flo crossed her arms and gave her husband a look that made Seifer wonder if the Mayor would be spending the night on the couch on the first floor that evening. He kind of hoped that's what her look meant; the guy deserved it. "Now, I'm sure that while you and the lady SeeD conduct business, no one will mind if I show these three handsome young men the town." Without waiting for a response, Flo stood up and left the room.

Xu shrugged and waved them off.

"Sorry about my husband," Flo told them once they were outside. "He's become very set in his ways since we left Esthar fifteen years ago. Trust in strangers isn't something he does well anymore."

"Don't worry about it, ma'am," Irvine assured her. "A lot of people claim to like Garden when they need our help and then badmouth us behind our backs. It's a little refreshing that your husband's honest, even if he doesn't like us."

"True," Squall agreed.

One of the locals raced up, panting for breath. "There are Galbadian soldiers at the upper crossing! They're demanding that we hand over someone named Ellone or they'll torch the place!"

"Who's Ellone?" Flo shook her head and then looked at the three teens. "Are they here for Garden?"

"It's not likely," Squall answered. "We only just learned about Garden's full capabilities; Galbadia thinks they blew us up. They couldn't have known we be able to move Balamb Garden, much less wind up here."

Flo nodded slowly. "If you're certain of that, then I believe you."

Her husband raced out of the house, Xu on his heels. "We mustn't rely on them. They won't be able to do anything without fighting! I'll go talk to them." Giving the SeeDs dirty looks, Mayor Dobe took off at a run across the catwalk.

"Huh," Seifer muttered, "he does run fast." There came the distinct sound of Squall hiding his face behind one of his hands, as if to block out the world around him. "So... would you like us to follow him, just in case the Galbadians don't feel like listening?"

Flo sighed and looked down sadly. "Please. But... try not to use violence. He'll be high for days if you do and he's so boring when he spends all his time watching his hand move."

"Sorry, Flo, no guarantees," Irvine told her, " but we'll do our best anyway."

* * *

"I already told you," the Mayor was saying as they walked up. "I've never heard of this girl Ellone. There is nobody here by that name."

"Fine," the Galbadian major laughed. "We'll just have to torch this city."

"I'm telling the truth! I've never seen this girl!" Dobe's whining was pretty pathetic. So much for diplomacy; the Mayor didn't have the first idea of how to talk down an enemy.

The lead soldier laughed manically. "It doesn't matter, old man. We're gonna burn this place anyway. Sorceress Edea's orders."

"Really?" Seifer ignored Squall frantic motioning to stay put and Xu signing to him that if he attacked the soldiers without her say so he'd be fired faster than he could say 'SeeD' – and signing all of that in under a minute was highly impressive on her part. Moving to stand in front of the Mayor, Seifer knew Flo would be amused and pissed off by what he was about to do... namely, beat the Mayor at his own game. "Soldier, under..." Seifer paused for a moment in order to recall the actual subsection and then rattled off the part of the Galbadian Military Code that he was searching for, "you cannot destroy a city, regardless of its size, without first posting notice in order to give the citizens a minimum of one hour to evacuate."

There was actually a clause like that in every country's military thanks to some treaty made about thirty years previous. The treaty had also set the standards for treatment of prisoners, defined what constituted as a 'war crime,' and instituted a ban on weapons of the nuclear variety being created by anyone ever.

"W-what?" the Major sounded startled.

"Present your orders and start the one hour countdown... if you're really authorized to declare war on the city-state of Fisherman's Horizon and burn it down, then that's what you have to do." Seifer quirked an eyebrow, smirking as the three soldiers glanced at each other in panic.

"We are the Sorceress' soldiers," the Major began to snarl, but Seifer interrupted him.

"Yeah, but I bet you're getting your orders from a chick about yay-tall," Seifer waved his hand at about Minion's height, "who would become very cranky if she heard about you guys trying to torch this place without going through the proper motions. Not that she actually gave you orders to do so in the first place. Just imagine what she'd do to you guys if you _did _burn FH to the ground." Seifer smirked. "Minion has such a temper, after all, and she likes playing with her blue witch powers..." trailing off, Seifer let the soldiers imaginations fill in the blanks.

"Uh, yeah, so... Ellone isn't here... we'll just be... going..." the major swallowed nervously, his gaze distant. Pivoting in place, he ordered the men to leave and within moments the three soldiers were gone.

"..." the Mayor was staring at Seifer in shock.

"You asked us to play nice. So I played nice," Seifer turned to Squall. "Why does everyone get so surprised when I actually deign to do as told?"

"Because you don't normally do so," Squall retorted in amusement. "Only you..." he trailed off with a laugh, earning a surprised look from Xu.

"It worked... didn't it?" Seifer shot back.

"I'm in shock," Xu stated loudly. "You... defused the situation by talking to the soldiers... why?"

"Because the Mayor's social skills suck," Seifer said brightly. "At the rate he was going, there wouldn't have been an FH for Raijin to move to next month. Rai has his heart set on becoming a master fisherman; I couldn't let this place burn for his sake."

Irvine started laughing. He hid his face behind his hat when he couldn't quite manage to stop.

The ground shook, calling everybody's attention to the visible water behind them. A giant machine – Seifer thought he recognized it as an iron clad – clambered up out of the ocean. It lumbered over them for a moment and, completely ignoring the Mayor's protests, the four SeeD pulled out their weapons, ready for just about anything.

Well... anything except the machine collapsing without them ever making an attack. Then the top hatch opened and out climbed three SeeD: Selphie, Quistis, and Zell.

"Irvine!" Selphie exclaimed, scrambling to bridge the distance between herself and the cowboy.

Irvine swept the girl into his arms, dragging her close. "Hey, beautiful," he said, burrowing his face against the top of her head. When he finally pulled away, Irvine dropped his hat on her head, making Selphie giggle with delight.

"It's great to see you guys," Squall spoke up, excitement and relief visible in his blue eyes.

"What happened to the Garden?" Zell asked anxiously. "How'd you guys end up here?"

"Garden is safe," Xu spoke up.

"Garden can _fly _now," Squall added.

"Really?" Selphie looked up into Irvine's eyes and he nodded affirmatively. "Wahoo!"

"What happened at the missile base?" Seifer asked.

"We should probably wait for the Headmaster before we debrief on that subject," Quistis spoke up.

Xu and Squall exchanged glances and then nodded. "We'll all head back to Garden for now, then," Squall announced.

Dobe was sitting, pouting, off in a corner, so they just left him there as they headed back to Garden.

* * *

Once they were all gathered in the Headmaster's office, Quistis made an official report on the events at the missile base. Basically, it boiled down to the fact that the Galbadians in charge were more resilient than the trio had expected and they wound up following Selphie's lead in blowing the place to teeny tiny pieces.

Kramer nodded solemnly. "The three of you preformed admirably under the circumstances. I am proud of each of you." Zell flushed and shuffled in embarrassment while Selphie bounced and Quistis ducked her head. "But recent events have opened my eyes to something I should have seen some time ago. It is time that I step down as Headmaster of Garden."

"What?" Quistis shook her head in denial. "No, you're a wonderful Headmaster!"

Seifer snorted softly, but kept his mouth shut. The others would probably find his current opinions on Kramer to be too harsh.

"I've grown too old for what we are to face next. It is time for you children to take control of your own destinies," Kramer pronounced. "With NORG dead and me retiring, Garden must have new leaders.

"I'm appointing Xu as the the new Headmistresses of Garden and Squall as SeeD Commander." Neither Xu nor Squall looked surprised, but they did appear unhappy. "I intend to make the announcement to the rest of Garden tomorrow. Then the two of you shall officially be in charge." Walking to the door of the office, the Headmaster added, "I'm sure you all have much to discuss," before leaving.

"Congratulations!" Quistis was the first to speak, looking between Xu and Squall. "This is an amazing opportunity for you two."

"An opportunity," Xu echoed weakly. "Of course it is."

"You don't sound very enthused," Seifer observed. "Not quite the opportunity either of you wanted, huh?"

"No," Squall responded. "It's not something I wanted at all. What the hell is he thinking?"

"Well, Seifer, maybe you shouldn't have told Headmaster Cid he was doing a crappy job," Irvine observed.

"When we got here, SeeDs were fighting SeeDs because of him," Seifer shot back. "Someone had to point out that he was fucking up."

"_You did what?_" Zell demanded.

"When we arrived at Garden from Galbadia, Garden was in chaos," Seifer snapped. "The Shumi were leading the Security forces in a fight against everyone else in hopes of arresting Kramer. Instead of sitting in a detention cell for a few hours while things could have been straightened out by others, Kramer hid in his office. While he was hiding, thirty-one people were injured and one SeeD died. There never should have been any fighting in the first place; so, yeah, I told him he was doing a crappy job."

Xu sighed. "We might have fought back anyway," she objected. "Then again... there was paperwork and other avenues we didn't have time to consider. I just don't know. I do know that we can't trust the current Security Chief." Xu's expression grew stony as she spoke.

"So we'll need to put someone we can trust in charge of Garden Security and have that person clean house there," Squall mused. "We'll also want to work on checking over the current command staff. We'll probably have to replace all of the Shumi faculty members. I can't see them wanting to work with us anymore."

"And we have a crazy Sorceress who wants us dead," Xu grumbled. "He's just dumping this mess on us. Well... Seifer, you added to his decision to leave so you get to help us fix this."

Exchanging a meaningful look with Xu, Squall said, "we're making you the new Security Chief."

"You're shitting me," Seifer responded automatically. This was... perfect.

"Nope." Xu cackled maniacally. "Getting rid of anyone in Security who won't play ball with us just became your problem."

Amused, Squall smirked faintly. "He likes challenges."

Within minutes, the others were saddled with new positions as well. Selphie was told to take charge of morale. Zell got the task of coordinating supplies. Quistis was put in charge of public relations. Irvine was told that he'd be made an official SeeD and, after a short debate, was given to Seifer to temporarily help deal with the current security team. Eventually Xu and the others left the office for dinner, but Seifer stayed behind with Squall, who was staring out the large window in a sort of dazed manner.

"Are you okay? You've got that expression on your face that makes me wonder if someone shot a puppy in front of you," Seifer teased, seating himself on the couch.

"I just... don't know how I'm supposed to do this job," Squall sighed and turned to Seifer. "I can't do this alone... I don't even know where to start. The only person I'm good at relying on... is you."

Seifer blushed. He couldn't help it; hearing Squall say that made his heart rate pick up slightly. "Flatterer," Seifer said with a smile.

"It's true," Squall insisted.

Seifer didn't really know what to say to that, so he changed the subject. "So... what else did Kramer talk to you and Xu about?"

Squall gave Seifer an unreadable look and then started explaining what Kramer had told him and Xu earlier. "Once his announcement is over, we're going to start reviewing all the current faculty members and making changes as necessary. Hopefully, when the FH technicians are finished we will be too."

"Making me the new head of Security won't be winning the two of you any popularity contests with the current faculty members," Seifer warned. "They may have let me start the DC, but that was done more to shut me up than out of any actual belief I'd use the position wisely."

"I know." Squall shrugged. "They'll just have to deal with it or resign." Wandering over to the couch, Squall sat down beside Seifer. "Once Garden is mobile again, we're going to check out how things are going in Balamb and then head to Trabia Garden. Hopefully we'll be able to find survivors, but..."

"I hope we do, for Selphie's sake," Seifer said.

"Yeah..."

Seifer tried to calm down, but his heart was suddenly racing a mile a minute. Squall was sitting so close to him that Seifer could feel the other teen's body heat, yet the distance between them was enough that he wasn't actually touching the brunet. They were turned enough to face each other and Squall's steady, blue gaze was entrancing...

"Seifer?"

"Huh?" Forcing himself to snap out of it, Seifer tried to pay better attention to what Squall was saying.

"Are you okay? You look flushed."

"I'm fine," Seifer attempted to wave off Squall's concern, but he didn't seem to be succeeding much.

"If you're coming down with something..."

"I told you, I'm fine."

Disbelief was the prominent emotion in Squall's eyes, followed closely by worry. "You're not exactly breathing right," Squall pointed out, causing Seifer to realize that he _was _breathing harder.

Seifer started to stand up, but Squall got up faster and grabbed his arm. Only Seifer overbalanced, falling back onto the couch and pulling Squall down on top of him. For a second they lay there, too surprised to move. Squall's face was hovering inches above his own and Seifer simply couldn't take it anymore. Sliding a hand up behind Squall's head, he brought his own face up and pressed his lips against Squall's.

There was a moment where the brunet hesitated and then he was kissing back. One of Squall's hands tangled itself in Seifer's shirt while the other tightened it's hold on Seifer's arm. Seifer slid his tongue out, running it along Squall's lips in search of permission to deepen the kiss. Squall's mouth opened immediately and he moaned almost inaudibly as Seifer's free hand landed on the small of his back and then moved teasingly along the curve of Squall's body to cup his ass.

All too soon, though, they had to pull away in order to catch their breath. That was when reality set in and Squall sat up and pulled away, falling to the floor in shock. Then the brunet scrambled to his feet and stood in the middle of the room, a hand pressed against his mouth.

Seifer sat up and stared at Squall. The panic on the other teen's face was too easy to read and Seifer felt his own fears begin to build. All he could think was that he'd just screwed everything up.

"What the hell was that?" Squall asked, his hand slowly lowering.

"It's called a kiss. It takes two to be done properly," Seifer responded automatically.

"I know what a kiss is!" Squall's hands clenched. "Why did you...?"

"Why do you think I kissed you?"

"If I knew, I wouldn't be asking," he hissed. "You haven't been acting the way people do when they... like me that way."

"What, like Trepe did?" Seifer gave Squall the most derisive look he could manage. "I'm not some little girl with a crush."

"She's the same age as you..." Squall looked confused for a moment.

"She's two months younger than me and that's completely beside the point... don't sidetrack me." Seifer took a deep breath and continued. "I don't even know why I care so much about you... you're frustrating, half the time talking to you means I have to drag your side of the conversation out of you word by word, you can be so oblivious... and funny and sexy..." letting out a shaky sigh, Seifer nervously slid a hand through his hair.

"You're not exactly the most endearing personality either," Squall grumbled and crossed his arms defensively in front of his chest. "You're pushy and always determined to prove your views are the right ones and... I like spending time with you..." his voice trailed off softly and he looked down.

Seifer stood and took a few steps forward. "Squall...?"

"How do you get under my skin this way?" Squall looked up as his tongue flicked out to lick his lips. Their eyes met and then Squall was the one who was pulling Seifer close in order to mesh their mouths together.

Their second kiss was slightly more awkward than the first, but that didn't matter in the slightest. Seifer was lost in the feeling of Squall's body pressed against him and the taste of Squall's tongue as the brunet slid it into Seifer's mouth. He wasn't certain how long they stood like that. But when they were forced to pull away in order to breathe, Seifer was fairly sure that the only reason they were both still on their feet was the fact that they were holding one another up.

"Squall..." Seifer said the name breathlessly in Squall's ear just before he started nibbling at it, thoroughly enjoying the hitched noise that escaped the other's lips.

"Nnn... S-Seifer..." Squall's hands were clenching Seifer' shirt, but suddenly they flattened out and he pushed away. "I... I can't..." he raced out of the room without another word.

Slumping to the floor, all Seifer could say was, "fuck..."

A/N – Yes, we're smirking evilly right now. Next up is an Interlude chapter... starring Rinoa. Muahahaha... Sith Lords have nothing on us, people... nothing! ^_^

Okay... I'll try to return to normal now.


	12. Interlude 2

Disclaimer – I don't own Final Fantasy VIII. Too bad for me, huh?

_Interlude Two – Present Day_

When Rinoa was fourteen, she came to three startling conclusions. The first was that Galbadia was ruled by a tyrant. The second was that she could not stand by and do nothing while Deling conquered and oppressed the innocent. The third was that her father had spoiled her all her life.

Though the first two revelations were more important, the third was the one that really sent her for a loop. It had never occurred to her that the things she took for granted in life – like riding horses whenever she wanted or having a heated, indoor pool for swimming in the summer – were not things that everyone got to have.

Most children her age didn't get have a wardrobe large enough that she could wear something different every day for a month and still not have worn every shirt. Most children her age didn't have personal tutors or play dates that were like having birthday parties at least once a month.

When she was fifteen, Rinoa ran away to Timber. She only had the outfit she'd been wearing at the time and two others, plus a few hundred in cash, and the determination that Timber would be free by the time she was twenty.

Five years wasn't much time in which to convince the locals to rise up in rebellion and take on the Galbadian army, but Rinoa quickly found that she didn't have to. She met Zone and Watts not long after arriving and discovered that they were members of the Forest Owls, one of two active cells in the city. Everyone in Timber's capital was a rebel, but most were on hiatus while they were working on rebuilding reserves and waiting for a weakness to make itself known.

Her codename became 'Princess' because she was General Caraway's daughter and it put a warm feeling in Rinoa's chest the first time she heard that Galbadian officials were looking for information on her alter-ego. They wanted to arrest her for terrorism, but the people called Princess a freedom fighter.

Bad habits were hard to break, however. Rinoa's wardrobe grew larger, which would have been fine if she hadn't purchased so many fancy dresses. She adopted a dog because she wanted someone to adore her unreservedly. That Angelo made an impressive bodyguard was simply the icing on the cake. The Forest Owls made her their new leader and did just about anything she asked of them. She was a Princess in more ways than one.

Days after turning sixteen, Rinoa met Seifer. He was handsome, charming, and unrefined. He was from Garden and thus a mercenary in training. He had this way of looking at Rinoa that made her pulse pick up. She'd had boyfriends before him, but none had been like him. Rinoa imagined how wonderful they'd look together and how much dating him would upset her father if he knew...

Convincing Seifer to date her was easy. Telling him that she didn't intend to have sex until she got married was awkward, but he'd been fine with it. Then came the end of summer and he broke up with her to go back to Garden.

No one had ever broken up with her before. She was the one who did the breaking up. That was how it was supposed to work.

Seifer then proceeded to ignore her emails, though he did consent to to introduce her to Cid during the next graduation ball when she called him in the winter.

Meeting Squall had been unexpected. He was handsome and charismatic in his own way, but so different from Seifer. He was also the center of Seifer's attention and the perfect way for her to strike back at Seifer... except Squall was completely uninterested in her.

Finally, Rinoa understood that she had to do more than change her circumstances. If she wanted to cease being spoiled then she had to change. Everything had to stop being about herself.

However, when Irvine made her realize that Seifer was in love with Squall, she forced herself to smile and play it cool even though she wanted to sit down and cry. Though much of Galbadia was filled with homophobic idiots, Rinoa had always prided herself in being indifferent to other people's orientation. So she teased Seifer and pretended that she hadn't just been hit with a painful epiphany.

No matter how how much she might desire Seifer, she could never have him.

All of this brought her to the very moment as she watched Squall run past her into the elevator. Somehow she knew that Seifer was in the office Squall had come racing out of and she knew that something along the lines of Seifer revealing his feelings to Squall had occurred. Squall must have freaked out somewhere along the way.

Rinoa wanted to resent Squall for receiving what she never would, but... Squall made Seifer happy.

Letting out a sigh, Rinoa walked over to the elevator and hit the call button. She'd come to the office floor to look for Headmaster Cid, but that could wait. She had more important things to worry about at the moment.

-=-=-=

The trek back to his dorm was a blur. It felt like one moment he'd been pushing away from Seifer and the next he was in his room, putting his gunblade away in its case.

The stress from the mission against the Sorceress, being tortured at the prison, their mad scramble to save Garden, the promotion... everything was already too much. Then, suddenly, Seifer kissed him and everything changed even further.

Shakily, Squall dropped onto his bed.

Nothing had ever felt as good as kissing Seifer. He'd felt as though electricity had been running through his veins and Seifer's touch had seemed to burn through his clothing. An unfamiliar taste still lingered in his mouth and the phantom feeling of Seifer's lips against his own persisted as well.

Squall felt as though he was coming undone.

The knocking at his door startled him out of his reverie. Squall stared blankly at his door, hoping that whoever it was would go away. The noise stopped and, for a few seconds, Squall thought that the person had left. But then the lock clicked, the door opened, and Rinoa strode into the room.

"You're making a terrible mistake," she announced.

"Get out of my room."

"You care about Seifer." Rinoa continued to speak, not paying Squall's demand any attention. "Whether you like it or not, you do."

"_Get_ _the hell __out of my room_."

"I get it. You're stressed. You're feelings for Seifer are making you even more stressed. Poor you. At least you know he loves you back. I'll never have that." Rinoa tilted her head to the side and regarded Squall with an expression he'd never seen on her face before: jealousy.

"Rinoa..."

"Shut up for a minute. I'm not done." Rinoa glared at him. "I do like you, but I kind of hate you right now, too. If you screw this up, I will do everything to make sure that your odds of getting a second chance with him are as nonexistent as my own.

"He's quite likely the only person who can help you make sense of everything going on right now. So don't make the mistake of sitting here, alone, with your thoughts running in circles. Go find him, Squall. You..." Rinoa sighed and shook her head sadly. "You need each other."

There was an awkward moment when she stood there, waiting for him to speak, and Squall had no idea what to say. But then she was walking out the door, which hissed softly, and Squall was left alone with his uncertainty.

Rinoa couldn't stop him from seeking out Seifer later if he did nothing now. Squall knew that she didn't have that kind of pull. Oh, she could make life difficult for him, but that wasn't particularly threatening.

The problem was, she was right. Sitting alone in the dark wasn't going to fix anything. His thoughts would run in circles and he'd wind up horribly frustrated. Seifer was always the one who helped lower Squall's stress level. When Squall studied too much, Seifer would be there to force him to eat or to drag him out for a sparring session.

The truth was Squall needed Seifer.

Standing up, Squall grabbed his gunblade case. As his movements went on autopilot, he tried to figure out what he'd do or say when he found Seifer. The best place to look for him was the training center, hence bringing along his gunblade, but that didn't help Squall divine what words to say.

Squall didn't even know what he wanted...

How did Seifer do this? How did he get in his head and under his skin and...? Why did he get so scared when Seifer was hurt and why did he worry when it seemed Seifer might be interested in someone else? Why... why did kissing Seifer feel so addictive?

Why did he enjoy spending time with Seifer so much?

Heart thudding and gunblade secured, Squall left his dorm room.

A/N - Honestly, this interlude was necessary because otherwise Squall's actions at the start of the next chapter might leave people going 'what the hell?' Also... I kind of like Rinoa in this part. Kit sent me the top half and the things that Rinoa ought to say to Squall and my reaction was basically... I still don't like Rinoa, but I think I understand her now. Nice job Kit!

Also, after writing Squall's section and rereading it... I kind of wanted to tackle-hug Squall. He's so very confuzzled... (confuzzled = confused + puzzled)


	13. Chapter 11

Disclaimer – We don't own Final Fantasy VIII. Too bad for us, huh?

A/N – This chapter doesn't cover as much ground as we thought it would and neither of us were entirely enthused about our Balamb scenes, but the chapter didn't annoy us as badly as Chapter Seven did. We're also skipping four days in the middle of the chapter because, quite honestly, those days were filled with firing people, paperwork, and interviews. There would have been steaminess between Seifer and Squall, of course, but the whole thing would have been a mostly boring waste of time. I'd have cried if we'd written those four days and Kit would have threatened to strangle me through the computer screen... speaking of that threat, I should go finish the long awaited update for _A Man and His Jacket_.

Also, I tried posting this last night and the site kept doing screwy things to me. It happened regardless of what browser I used or what computer I was on. Thus the chapter was unavoidably late. It did give Kit and myself some time for a few final revisions, however, so it all turned out fine in the end.

A/N update - Thank you to Nanakichan for pointing out that we had 'desert' instead of 'dessert.' :) Whoops...

_Chapter Eleven_

Seifer forced himself to stand up and leave the office after a few stunned moments where he sat on the floor trying to figure out just what had happened. The conclusion he'd arrived at by the time he reached the safety of the elevator was that he'd kissed Squall, admitted his feelings for Squall, listened to Squall say something that would have been very corny in any other situation, and been kissed by Squall. It had all happened and he wasn't hallucinating any of it.

On one hand, he'd gotten to make out with Squall, which was even better than he could have ever imagined. On the other hand, Squall was probably going to treat him like a plague carrier from here on out, which was so horrible than Seifer could barely bring himself to contemplate it.

Even though it was dinner time and Seifer was starving, he headed to the training center instead. Most of the monsters had been killed during the fight between NORG's SeeD and Kramer's SeeD, but there were supposedly a few T-Rex and grats left in there somewhere. He'd go hack apart as many of the damned things he could find until he felt capable of facing people. Running into Fuu and Rai would be an especially bad idea. They'd demand to know what was wrong and he wasn't ready to explain to them just how badly he'd screwed up. So it was with great relief that he passed through the halls and into the training center without seeing anyone at all.

But after wandering the training center for twenty minutes, Seifer hadn't seen even the slightest sign of a T-Rex, much less a grat. A knotted feeling had slowly settled into his chest as he was turned what happened in the office over and over in his mind. He was frustrated, more than a little turned on by what had happened, and partially pissed off at the mixed signals he'd gotten from Squall. A good fight was what he needed to clear his mind but, as he finally trudged up to the training center exit, Seifer had to acknowledge that he simply wasn't going to get what he wanted.

That was when he saw Squall standing in front of the exit. Seifer stopped and stared at the brunet, not sure what to say.

"I thought I'd find you here," Squall said, shifting uncomfortably.

Swallowing nervously, Seifer put a great deal of effort in keeping as still as possible. "I got the impression you didn't want to be around me." Squall winced.

"I... I don't know what I want," Squall confessed. "You have me so confused. I've never kissed anyone before... no one has ever kissed _me_ before."

"Look... Squall, I'm sure it's pretty obvious now what I want. But if that's not... if you don't..." Seifer sighed and shook his head. He was only managing to sound like a stammering idiot. Regrouping his thoughts, Seifer tried again. "I like being around you and if all I can have is friendship, then I can learn to deal with that. Just don't... don't kiss me like you did and then run off again. That tends to fall under the category of mixed signals and is the sort of 'screwing with people' that ends badly. So... I need you to figure out what you want."

Biting his lip, Squall nodded silently. Glancing around abruptly, he asked, "are we the only ones here?"

"Yeah... even the not-so-secret place is empty."

"Good." Squall unsheathed his gunblade. "Spar with me?"

Even though his mind was screaming at him that this was a terrible, horrible idea, Seifer nodded. "Yeah... sure." Hyperion was already in his hand since he'd been wandering around, so he used it to gesture as he asked, "here or somewhere further in?"

"Further in," Squall decided, taking off at a steady pace. Seifer followed him until the exit was out of sight. "This is fine," Squall said as he came to a stop and faced Seifer.

"Usual rules?" Seifer asked, meaning 'no magic or junctions.'

Squall nodded. "Not that you usually follow them," he added.

"Scout's honor," Seifer responded facetiously.

Rolling his eyes, Squall made a soft, incredulous noise. Then he dropped into a defensive stance as all emotion disappeared from his face.

Seifer lacked the patience to wait for Squall to make the first attack, so he took a second to adjust his grip on Hyperion and then swung at Squall's midsection. Squall parried the blow and thrust his own weapon towards Seifer's chest. Seifer easily ducked out of the way and feinted to the right before attacking Squall's left shoulder. But Squall didn't fall for it and their blades clang loudly as they met.

From there they fell into the familiar dance. Attacks, parries, feints... Seifer was physically stronger, but Squall was faster. All in all, they were evenly matched. Seifer's mind wandered slightly. The last time he remembered fighting Squall one on one was in the other time line when he'd been the Sorceress' Knight and Squall had arrived to assassinate Edea. The fight was a blur, Seifer's mind already too clouded by the magic that tethered him to Ultimecia to fight at his best. After that fight, Squall had always battled him with the others at his side; his losses had been inevitable.

Now, though... Seifer reveled in the feeling of Hyperion clashing against Squall's gunblade and the sight of sweat beading on the brunet's forehead, plastering his hair against his skin. Yet... Squall seemed somewhat distracted as well. Seifer wondered what thoughts were running through the other's mind.

It's never a good idea to be inattentive during a fight, even when it is only meant to be just a friendly spar. One of Seifer's overhead swing's caught Squall's attempt to parry it at the wrong angle, knocking the gunblade out of Squall's hands. Seifer tried to pull Hyperion away in time, but the tip still scraped across the brunet's forehead and knocked Squall to the ground.

In the strangest case of deja vu that Seifer had felt since waking up in the past, Squall grabbed his gunblade, stood up, and brought the blade up in a swinging arc that Seifer made no move to block. Seconds later he had the makings of his old scar back.

Squall's eyes widened as he realized what they'd done and he backed off a few steps. "Seifer..."

"We should get cleaned up in the rec room," Seifer said quietly, gesturing towards the exit. There were individual training rooms off the hallway leading to the training center, but the room closest to the center was the rec room, which was filled with weights, a couple of punching bags, a boxing ring, and a small first aide station. It would be sufficient for taking care of the wounds on their foreheads and cleaning up the blood slowly running down their faces.

"Seifer..." Squall sounded so guilty. "I wasn't paying enough attention."

"Squall," Seifer put a hand on his shoulder, "it's fine." Since he'd wanted his scar back anyway, Seifer felt oddly pleased with how their spar had turned out. "I wasn't paying enough attention either." Suddenly aware of how close Squall was to him, Seifer felt the desire to kiss Squall bubble up from within. He started to lean in, but got a hold of himself. Dropping his hand back to his side, Seifer led the way to the rec room in silence.

Once in front of the first aide station, Seifer used potion drenched gauze to staunch the blood and cleaned away the mess on his face with a wet paper towel. To his surprise, Squall was doing the same thing. Magic would easily make the wound disappear without a trace, but using a potion the way they were would definitely leave scars.

"Keeping the scar for a reason?" Seifer asked curiously, settling onto a nearby bench.

Squall shrugged. "You?"

"Scars are sexy," Seifer quipped. "I'm sure you have a less inane reason than mine."

Turning his attention back to cleaning himself up, Squall almost didn't answer. Finally, though, he said, "to remind me to pay better attention."

"You're too serious sometimes," Seifer told him, giving him an exasperated look. Getting back up, Seifer tossed the towels and gauze in the trash and checked his wound in the mirror over the station. It was mostly scabbed over now and didn't look too bad, but there was a spot where he'd missed and it was still bleeding. He started to reach for the open potion bottle, but Squall grabbed it first.

Dumping the last of the potion onto another section of gauze, Squall gestured towards Seifer's face. "Let me?" he asked before reaching up and pressing the gauze against Seifer's face.

Seifer's eyes closed for a moment and he took a shaky breath. Breathing out slowly, Seifer did his best not to react further to Squall's closeness, but the brunet seemed intent on driving him crazy.

"It's been brought to my attention," Squall told Seifer calmly, "that I need you. You're always the one who's there for me and you've always been the most important person in my life, even when I wasn't willing to admit it. I'm not very good at understanding my own feelings, but... I think I know what I want now.

"_I want you_. I want to know where this is going," with that said, Squall tossed the gauze into the trash and kissed Seifer.

Reluctantly, Seifer pulled away, his mind dazed. "You'd better not be messing with me," Seifer said, wanting so badly to have his way with Squall right there, but...

"I'm not messing with you," Squall said simply, the irises of his eyes having turned a deep shade of cerulean and dilating for reasons other than the poor lighting.

Nodding, Seifer leaned in and caught Squall's mouth in another kiss that was, after a split second, returned passionately. Instantly, Seifer grabbed onto Squall's upper arms and maneuvered them so that he was pressing the shorter man against the nearby wall. Slipping his leg between Squall's, Seifer teased Squall's tongue into his mouth and then sucked on it, massaging Squall's tongue with his own.

Squall's reaction was everything Seifer had hoped for; the brunet's hips bucked, building the friction between them even as Squall's needy whimper reached Seifer's ears. Squall's arousal pressed against Seifer's thigh and Squall shifted, trying simultaneously to rub against him and relieve the pressure. Both the skin tight, ass hugging leather pants that Squall always wore and Seifer's own growing erection, pressed again Squall's waist, were slowly driving the brunet mad with desire.

Breaking away breathlessly, Squall slipped his hands under Seifer's shirt. His hands explored Seifer's chest, curiously tweaking the blonde's nipples. Groaning, Seifer buried his face against Squall's shoulder even as his own hips bucked against Squall's. "Fuck..." he moaned, breathing heavily.

That was when both their stomachs decided to speak up, grumbling over their lack of dinner.

Laughing quietly, Seifer edged his body slightly away from Squall's, but kept his face against the brunet's shoulder. "Dinner first," he said and then moved his head so that he could properly leer at Squall. "Dessert later."

* * *

"I still can't believe Selphie said that in front of the engineers," Quistis said, sounding faintly traumatized.

"Oh, come on, Quistis," Zell teased, "the FH guys thought it was hilarious."

"Besides," Seifer added with a grin, "she's got a point."

Squall rolled his eyes and grabbed the keys to one of Garden's convertibles off the rack. He paused long enough to sign his name on the list and log the car's license plate number and the time, and then pointed out the one he'd picked. "I'm driving," he added, giving everyone a look that dared them to argue.

"He's only been Commander for four days and he's already abusing his rank," Zell grumbled good naturedly.

"Shotgun!" Seifer exclaimed, racing around to the passenger side seat.

"You're such a child," Quistis huffed, but she wasn't to be deterred from her annoyance. "Calling the steering apparatus 'the almighty phallic symbol'..." Quistis shook her head slowly. "I just don't understand that girl."

"There's a reason video games are played with 'joysticks,' Trepe," Seifer drawled. "Selphie isn't the only one who notices that sort of thing. She's just the only one who said it out loud."

"Ugh..."

"It's been hours since we left FH," Zell gave Quistis a long look. "Why are you still stuck on this?"

"Because..."

Seifer tuned out the argument in the backseat in favor of watching Squall back the car out of its parking spot and drive them out into the daylight. It had been four incredibly long, wonderful days since the evening that they'd gotten their scars and started... whatever it was that had settled between them. Four nights that Seifer had spent in Squall's bed talking about whatever came to mind and learning every inch of the other's body... memorizing the noises that Squall made when Seifer kissed and touched him in just the right places.

Fujin and Raijin knew about them; Seifer had been forced to explain once they'd seen the scar on his face. Irvine likely knew, too, since he was still using Seifer's room. Staying out all night and only showing up in the morning for a change of clothes likely made it all too obvious to the cowboy. No one else seemed to have realized that anything had changed... or they were politely waiting for them to admit things for themselves.

The thing was, Seifer wasn't certain what they'd be admitting to. He cared deeply for Squall, growing closer all the time to loving him... but what were Squall's feelings? Squall had said he wanted Seifer – that he _needed_ Seifer – but that didn't mean that their fooling around translated into being boyfriends. While most people used the term lovers almost casually, Seifer had always seen it as a term applied to two people who _loved_ each other. Maybe it was because of his tendency towards romanticizing everything, but Seifer couldn't quite classify them as lovers yet.

It had been startling for him, during the night before as he'd been absently running his fingers through Squall's hair while the brunet slept, to realize that he really, truly wanted to be Squall's lover in every sense of the word. He wanted to know what it was like to see love in Squall's eyes or hear Squall's voice say that word and mean it.

Obviously these were things that Seifer had no intention of ever voicing. He had a reputation of being a bad ass and no desire to ruin that.

Tearing his thoughts away from Squall, Seifer surveyed the scenery.

Garden had parked itself near it's old home, close enough that they were able to line the garage back up with the road and extend a ramp so that they could send a few people into Balamb to check on how things were going. Since he was going a little stir crazy from endless interviews, Squall had jumped on the chance to personally lead the Balamb team. Zell was the first person Squall had offered to let join his team since he figured Zell was anxious to know how his mother was. Quistis had told Squall that, as Garden's new PR director, she ought to go out and get a feel for how people outside of FH currently viewed the institution. Seifer had flatly informed Squall that he wasn't going anywhere without a member of security with him. While Squall had been irritated by Seifer's comments on the subject of keeping Garden's Commander safe, the brunet had reluctantly agreed to take someone from security along... so long as that someone from security was Seifer.

"_Are you asking me on a date?"_ Seifer had asked jokingly, some hours earlier when they'd been departing FH.

Squall's eyes had widened in surprise at the question before he shrugged. _"No. But... we'll still be parked near the town in the evening. I'm sure you have a favorite restaurant in Balamb we could go to... __that__ would be a date."_

Let's just say that Seifer's thoughts had been very distracted since then.

Over the past four days, Seifer had taken over the Security division of Garden. The previous Security Chief took getting fired well enough... once Seifer idly asked him how much man power he thought an investigation into incompetence and negligence would take. Most of the security force opted to stick around out of curiosity to see what changes Seifer would bring, though a few had turned in their resignations. Everyone who'd decided to leave Garden had disembarked at FH and bought tickets out of town.

Afterwards, Seifer and Irvine conducted a few interviews of their own. Seifer had also begun revamping everything from perimeter security to their internet firewalls, which were woefully out of date. Though, after leaving FH, Seifer's mind kept wandering back to Squall's words... _that would a date._

Thwack!

Seifer flinched and then glared at Squall. "What was that for?" he asked, rubbing his shoulder.

Squall just smirked. "I barely touched you," he said, his tone implying that Seifer was being a baby. "I was trying to get your attention. You were zoning out. That's supposed to be my annoying habit, not yours."

Zell laughed, only to be elbowed by Quistis. "Ow..."

"So... you two have certainly been getting along well lately," Quistis drawled, giving them a searching look that, as the driver, Squall missed.

"Subtle isn't something you do well, Trepe." Seifer rolled his eyes at her. "So... what were you wanting my attention for?" he asked, turning back towards Squall.

"When we brought Garden past Balamb earlier, I'm certain _that_ wasn't there," he gestured towards the city.

Looking over at Balamb, Seifer was surprised to see Galbadia Garden parked just off the coast, almost hidden behind the city. He remembered briefly bringing Galbadia Garden to Balamb in the other time-line, but everything that happened there was vague in his mind. He thought that he'd run into Fuu and Rai and left them in charge, but... the memories of the other timeline were growing less reliable.

"No... a giant, red, flying Garden tends to be noticed by people in a giant, white, flying Garden," Seifer agreed, his eyes narrowing. "I'll bet you anything Minion has taken charge of whatever is going on at Balamb... they're probably searching for Ellone like that team of soldiers that showed up at Fisherman's Horizon."

"Probably," Squall agreed. "The entrances to the town are likely sealed off. We're going to have to find a way to sneak in. Zell, do you know any unofficial ways in and out of town?"

"Nah... I wasn't really big on the sneaking out of town thing... just the sneaking out of the house thing." Zell shrugged. "Sorry. The only way in that I know of is the front gates."

"What were you sneaking out for?" Quistis asked.

"Uh... no reason. No reason at all..." Zell turned a rather bright shade of red and determinedly avoided looking anyone in the eye.

"That's odd," Squall observed. "Even I've sneaked out of Garden a few times."

"Really? What for?" Zell asked, looking far too interested for his own good. Zell was thinking 'girls.' Squall was thinking along far different lines.

"Sparring with Seifer."

Zell choked and Seifer laughed. "Mind out of the gutter, Chicken-wuss." Squall blushed and tightened his grip on the steering wheel, glancing over at Seifer with a faint smile.

Quistis leaned forward, smirking. "Selphie is quite the interrogator, guys. She left Irvine with no choice but to spill everything he knows. Maybe it used to be 'just sparring' but spending the night together four nights in a row implies more than just a little 'late night sparring.'"

"Not unless you're being euphemistic," Zell muttered. Then he froze, shuddered, and told them, "I don't think this is a conversation that needs to include me."

"It's not a conversation we're going to have at all," Squall told them firmly. "What's between Seifer and me really isn't any of your business, Quistis."

"So there _is _something between you two," she exclaimed, chuckling as the car's speed picked up a little.

"I'm not hearing this..." Zell's hands covered his ears.

"Oh, look, we're almost there. We should park the car outside the wall over there," Seifer gestured to an area where the land was flat enough that taking the car off road wouldn't hurt the car.

"Yeah..." Squall nodded, pulling the car over and cutting the engine.

Everyone clambered out of the car, though Seifer was a little slow about it. His thoughts were running around in circles again. Was Squall okay with people knowing about them or...?

"Seifer?"

"Hmm?" he really needed to stop zoning out. Squall was standing right in front of him.

"Did you think of a restaurant for us?"

"Yeah..." Seifer reached out and snagged Squall's hand, running his gloved fingers slowly, seductively across Squall's wrist and up his arm. "It's a surprise. Though... if we don't save the town, we can't exactly have our date, can we?"

Letting out a shuddering breath, Squall nodded. "I'm not usually good with surprises..." his breath hitched as Seifer leaned forward, bringing their faces close together.

"You've just haven't had enough fun surprises," Seifer drawled before sauntering away towards the town gate. "Well? You three coming?" He was rather enjoying the stunned stares he was getting. This was going to be a fun day...

* * *

It didn't take much to fool their way past the gate guards; all they had to do was lie about having important info on Ellone to give to their commander. Then Zell took off straight for home with Quistis as his reluctant partner. Seifer got the feeling that she wanted to stick around and scrutinize how he and Squall were acting towards each other, but Squall insisted that they stay in pairs. It was a sound decision, given the large number of Galbadian patrols wandering the streets, so Quistis couldn't exactly complain.

Once the other two were gone, Seifer suggested that they head to the police station and find out what had happened from the officers there. Squall had absently agreed and they started walking there. The day was nice – the sun was shining, flowers were in bloom beside the sidewalks, and the temperature was at that perfect median between cool and hot – that it could have easily been romantic for them. Except... it somehow grew tense instead.

"Are you okay with them knowing about us?" Seifer finally asked, about halfway to the station.

"It's kind of late to be asking that," Squall sighed, "but, no, I don't mind them knowing. I just... Quistis wants more information on us and Hyne knows Selphie is going to pry into our relationship as best she can. I wish they'd let our personal life stay just that: ours... They don't need to know the details."

"Fortunately, that's how Fuu and Rai are. We're together and they can tell we're happier. Beyond that, they don't really give a damn." Seifer shrugged and added, "most girls like to gossip, as far as I can tell, so I'm not all that surprised that even Trepe is looking for info. Though... part of it probably has to do with the fact that you shut her down when she made a play for you and she wants to know why you're with me."

"It's not that big a mystery," Squall muttered, shoving his hands into his pockets. "No one makes me feel like you do. Not that I really understand how you make me feel..."

"No..." Seifer drawled with a smirk. "It's not a mystery at all."

"Shut up."

Seifer stayed quiet for a moment and then said, "I really need to get Kinneas kicked out of my room so he can stop reporting to Selphie. Damn, that cowboy is whipped..." Squall snorted in amusement.

"I'll threaten Zell so he'll fix things. Room allotment falls under his current duties," Squall told him.

"He's likely already been bribed or threatened by the ladies. You'll have to be scarier than Trepe PMS-ing." Seifer mock-shuddered. "It won't be easy."

"I can handle it," Squall replied dismissively. Then, more contemplatively, Squall said quietly, "Seifer, I... when we first kissed, I... I thought that this... thing between us would only make me more stressed on top of being named Commander and everything that's been happening lately. Instead, when I'm around you I feel more relaxed. I know it wasn't really your intention to kiss me that day, but I'm glad you did."

Seifer felt his face blush and he ducked his head even as he smiled. "I thought I'd screwed everything up. One impulsive decision wrecking everything... it isn't exactly out of character for me. I'm just glad you found me in the Training Center afterwards." Idly, Seifer reached out and trailed his fingers lightly over Squall's scar for a few seconds before dropping his hand away. Squall didn't jerk away, so Seifer took that as a good sign. "Squall... don't be surprised when I fall in love with you, okay?"

"What?" Squall froze and so Seifer stopped to look at him.

They were only a few yards away from their destination, but Seifer knew they needed to finish this conversation before going inside, not after. "I'm not in love with you. Not yet, anyway. But I know I'm falling for you... hard. So..." he trailed off with a shrug.

For a moment Squall just stood there, staring at him incomprehensibly. His eyes suddenly snapped into focus just before he reached out, slipping his hand into Seifer's and then dragging him into a nearby alcove between two buildings. Seifer had enough time to register the fact that it would be difficult for them to be seen where they stood before Squall's mouth was pressing insistently against his own and all thoughts drifted away. "I care about you a lot, Seifer," Squall murmured before pulling away. In a louder voice, he added, "we should get back to the task at hand."

"Yeah..." Seifer took a few deep breaths and turned in the direction of the Police Station. "What was that task again? I lost track of what we were doing before you kissed me."

Squall rolled his eyes, but smiled and left his hand entwined with Seifer's until they passed through the station's doors.

It took a few moments to remember the way to Detective Sorrenson's desk, but Seifer was pleased to see recognition on the other man's face as he walked up with Squall. "Detective, I noticed your city's been barricaded by a few unfriendly looking out-of-towners."

"Really?" Sorrenson drawled. "Are those Galbadian soldiers not from around here? No wonder everybody's been complaining to us today. So... how did two SeeD manage to make it past their blockade?"

Squall shrugged. "We lied to them. They're here to find a girl called Ellone, but she's far from here... safe. For now, anyway. We were hoping you would fill us in on what's going on here."

"Sure, why not." Sorrenson shrugged and gestured for them to pull up a seat. "About an hour ago, Galbadia Garden landed at our docks. Seeing your Garden fly past us the other day was pretty amazing; having one dock here was..." he trailed off and shrugged again. "Intimidating would be a good word for it. Anyway, their Commander, a young lady calling herself Cadell Minion, set up a command center at the Inn and is having all the buildings searched for that Ellone girl."

"So Minion's at the Inn," Seifer mused, "which is down the block from Dincht's house... what do you think the odds are that she'll run into Dincht and Trepe before we can get over there?"

"Yeah... we should go before Zell does something stupid." Squall stood up, nodded at Sorrenson, and then headed for the exit.

"Thanks for the info." Seifer said, standing up as well.

"No problem. Congratulations on making SeeD, by the way. Is it everything you were hoping for?" Sorrenson gave Seifer a somewhat wry look.

"Still trying to poach me away from Garden, huh?" Seifer teased. "There have been a lot of changes lately... but I don't really have the time to talk about that. If I don't catch up now, Squall will leave me behind." Grinning, Seifer hurried after Squall, managing to catch up with him at the door.

"What took you so long?" Squall complained, making Seifer get the door.

"Oh, Sorrenson just wanted to make his usual offer for me to leave Garden and pursue a career in law-enforcement." Seifer smirked, brushing the back of his hand lightly against Squall's. "It was even less enticing than usual."

"Good." Squall tilted his head to the side and a sly little smile worked its way onto his face. "I'd hate to have to find a new Security Chief so soon."

"Is that all?" Seifer mock-pouted. "Surely I'm worth more than that."

"Well... I suppose I'd miss sparring with you," Squall contemplated absently.

"In which sense of the word 'sparring'?" Seifer waggled his eyebrows suggestively, feeling triumphant as Squall blushed. He resisted the urge to yank Squall back into the alcove they'd been in only minutes earlier. Quite frankly, he didn't think he'd want to stop at just a kiss this time and they really were in a hurry...

* * *

The first sign that something was wrong had to be the people running away from the Inn. The second sign was Zell Dincht flying through the air only to crash into a few garbage cans. The third sign was the sound of Quistis cussing fluently.

Seifer couldn't really recall the last time he'd heard Trepe sound that pissed off; this wasn't boding well.

Once the two gunbladers walked into the Inn, they saw something few people had ever witnessed before: two blue witches facing off against each other. Though Minion had more experience and a wider array of spells mastered, Quistis was undeniably the more powerful of the two. She was also more angry. The walls of the Inn were filled with holes and charred lines from various spells, the floor was soaked, and the ceiling now had a few places where the room above could be seen.

Casually, Squall walked over to the Inn's owner, who was standing in a corner of the room and was miraculously unharmed, and told him, "Garden will cover the damages."

The owner had been about to start haranguing Squall, so the man's mouth hung open in comical surprise for a few moments before he started listing the current damages and the amount it would cost so far. Squall just stood there stoically, ignoring the ongoing fight.

Across the room, Seifer was not in a position to ignore the grudge match between the two witches. He'd already ducked a blast of some sort of sonic scream from Minion, nearly been washed off his feet by Quistis' water blast (which less of a directed attack than it should have been), and been generally annoyed by the both of them. He didn't care how the fight started and normally he'd have been happy enough to stand back and let them finish it. But they were inside of Balamb's Inn... Quistis was supposed to be upholding Balamb Garden's public relations, dammit!

"That is enough!" Seifer yelled, startling the two combatants into a standstill. "Trepe, Minion, what the hell is going on here?"

About that time, Zell limped back into the Inn. "I can take her..." he trailed off, breathing heavily. "Oh... the fighting stopped... good." He collapsed into one of the only chairs still standing, heedless of the fact that the fabric was sopping wet.

"We came here to ask Commander Minion to leave Balamb peacefully. Perhaps Zell was a little impolitic, but she attacked first," Quistis responded, noticing that Squall was glaring at her from where he stood by the Inn's owner.

Seifer snickered. "Commander Minion..." he trailed off, trying not to really start laughing, but really...

"I'm thinking about changing my name," Minion offered, smiling pleasantly. "I was thinking of going with 'Intimidating' so that everyone will have to call me Commander Intimidating. I considered going with 'Knight,' but Commander Knight sounds like some sort of porn movie title."

"It's nice to know that you can take over the Galbadian Army and still keep that sense of humor of yours," Seifer responded, shaking his head in amusement. "Why did you attack Trepe and Dincht? Surely Dincht's latest idiot remark couldn't have been _that _bad."

"Hey!" Zell exclaimed on principle.

"You guys are SeeDs. You all want to kill my Sorceress. I feel bad about it, but I'm going to have to stop every single one of you before you get a chance to hurt her. It's not personal, Seifer. This is just the way the cookie crumbles." She paused and rubbed the tip of her nose for a second, as though it were itchy. Once her hand fell away again she muttered, "now I want a cookie."

"You know it was the Sorceress' men who tortured you before we were taken to D-District, Minion," Seifer said slowly, hoping that maybe there would be a way of talking Minion down now. It would mean that Ultimecia would have to find a new Knight again and he couldn't help but think it would be entertaining to be constantly depriving the future bitch of her fighters.

Minion's eyes glazed over and she spoke slowly - haltingly - as her head shook in denial. "I... I wasn't tortured. I was taken in for questioning at Deling. There was no trip to D-District. I... was taken directly to Sorceress Edea. She... she understands me, Seifer, like no one ever has. You couldn't even begin to comprehend what she's like."

"Whoa," Zell spoke up. "You were at D-District with us, Minion. You were totally out of it because of something that happened to you before we got there. Seifer said you were tortured and, what with how you were acting then, I don't doubt it."

"I wasn't tortured! I'm not that weak!" Minion snarled. "I don't need to hear your lies anymore. I thought we were friends, Seifer! I might not be able to beat all of you, but I will fight you again, Quistis Trepe. Next time won't be a draw." She then stalked past the SeeDs and out of the Inn.

Quistis made to go after her, but Seifer caught her arm. "I don't want to let her go either, Trepe, but if she returns to Galbadia Garden then she'll recall the soldiers and leave town. Right now, that's our goal."

"What has the Sorceress done to her?" Quistis asked helplessly. "How can she not remember?"

"She doesn't want to," Squall told her. "She wants to forget and the Sorceress is using that to control her."

"Squall's right," Seifer agreed, releasing Quistis' arm. "I remember hearing the students at Galbadia Garden talking about Sorceresses having the ability to control other people's minds when we were there last week. Sorceress Edea is using her magic to control Minion and manipulate her memories. There's nothing we can do for her right now."

"I..." Quistis looked away, crossing her arms protectively across her chest. "I wish we could save her," she whispered softly.

Seifer didn't respond, but... he wanted to save Minion too.

A/N - Okay, so I'm home again - in search of a summer job again - but so very glad to be back in my room with my puppy (a terrier by the name of Rabbit... I was much younger when I named her) instead of updating in the middle of class when I ought to be taking notes. Maybe if the professor didn't read the power points verbatim, I would have been more attentive during class. Oh well, I got a B, so I'm happy. I hope everyone else who is still in school did well in their classes as well. ^_^


	14. Chapter 12

Disclaimer – I don't own Final Fantasy VIII. Too bad for me, huh?

A/N – It's Emcey; I'm baaaaack... so, last Tuesday I was alone in the house – my parents were at work and my younger sister was still in classes at the local high school – and I tripped somewhere in between the middle and top of the stairs. I don't really remember what happened 'cause it's all a blur, but the next thing I knew it was an hour later, I was lying at the base of the stairs, and Rabbit was licking my nose and looking worried. I had my cell phone on me and it was undamaged by my fall, which was lucky for me. I broke my left arm but I also broke my right index finger. My right knee also got banged up pretty badly, so it's all swollen and I can't walk on it very well just yet. I've spent the past week in a sort of haze where I've been asleep more than I've been awake. Sadly, I haven't done any work on chapter 13 and I don't think Kit has done much without me. As it was, I hadn't actually finished the last couple of pages of this chapter before I fell, so I worked on finishing that first before even considering moving on to the next chapter.

Typing is a bit of a pain since I have to poke at the key's with my unbroken fingers. Until my finger heals, I'll be cutting back on the typing, which unfortunately means longer periods between updates. Kit absolutely refuses to write the chapters without me, which is pretty sweet of her. She wants the story to remain a joint venture. I'd really like to thank everyone who was worried about me; I appreciate the sentiment and I hope to heal quickly.

That being said, we're upping the story rating to M. I'm not sure if we'll be brave enough to write a complete sex scene for the guys (neither of us have written one before)... but they certainly can't keep their hands off each other. ^_~

_Chapter Twelve_

"Galbadia Garden may be gone, but we're going to run into them again," Squall observed morosely, staring out at the setting sun without really seeing the gorgeous scene of reds and oranges that splayed across the sky. "We'll have to fight them then."

"And we'll get right on contingency plans for defending Garden from attacks... tomorrow. Squall..." Seifer buried his face against the crook of the brunet's neck for a moment, tightening his hold around Squall's waist. They were sitting together on the docks, Squall's back pressed up against Seifer's chest. "I should tell you about Minion... about how the Sorceress must have gotten to her."

"You were avoiding the topic of her throughout dinner," Squall observed. His hands slid down and wrapped around Seifer's hands comfortingly. "I know she's your friend. When you first brought her up in Deling, I thought..." he trailed off uncertainly.

"You were jealous!" Seifer laughed as he watched Squall scowl.

"_I wasn't jealous_."

"Sure..." Seifer drawled and kissed the side of Squall's jaw. "I met her two summers ago, not long after she got kicked out of Galbadia Garden. She'd been eligible for the SeeD exam for the first time that year, but she'd been denied her transfer request. When she went to find out why, her requests for information were repeatedly denied. Eventually she confronted the Headmaster about it; Martine told her that he didn't want to let a freak like her have a chance at getting into SeeD."

"A freak... because she's a Blue Witch?"

"No... because she's a lesbian. Martine's gonna blow a fuse when he learns that Balamb Garden's new Commander has a boyfriend," the words slipped out before Seifer could rethink them. Squall's hands tightened their grip. "Anyway... Minion tried going over Martine's head by reporting to Kraemer what was happening to her. She wasn't fast enough, though, and Martine threw her out. Once she wasn't a cadet anymore, Kraemer was more inclined to listen to Martine over Minion.

"Just another reason I can't stand Headmaster Kraemer. For someone who was supposed to be looking after the students of Garden, he's done a really crap job."

"So I'm learning." Tilting his head to the side in order to see Seifer's face better, Squall mused, "Minion had cause to hate SeeD for what happened to her. That's how you think the Sorceress is maintaining control over her."

"The Sorceress hates SeeD and not just because we tried to assassinate her. She must have been able to use their mutual dislike to create a bond or something using magic." Seifer shuddered, remembering how out of control he'd been as Ultimecia's Knight. When he'd been her Knight, he'd gotten angrier and angrier at SeeD and Squall, unable to control his emotions or reign anything in. The only moments of calm he'd had came from when Ultimecia's concentration had been on someone else and Seifer could take a few moments to breathe, his fingers rubbing soothingly against the scar he'd received from Squall. But what did Minion have to distract her mind from Ultimecia's control?

"There's something else that's bothering you, isn't there?"

"It's not so much SeeD that Minion hated as it was the people in charge." Seifer paused and then asked, "sound familiar?"

"She sounds a little like you," Squall admitted.

Seifer pressed his face against Squall's neck again. "If I hadn't passed the recent SeeD exam... I could have easily been targeted as a potential Knight by this Sorceress." _I would have been her Knight,_ his mind corrected.

"I'd be stuck dealing with a lovestruck Rinoa all on my own," Squall muttered in horror.

Laughter bubbled out of Seifer unbidden. "_That's_ what your taking away from this conversation?"

"It's a rather terrifying idea," Squall protested. "She's like a terrier; she doesn't let go or give up without a fight, except it's guys she latches onto, not squeaky toys."

"She's not as bad as she used to be," Seifer told him. "But, yeah... she's clingy as hell." Closing his eyes, Seifer listened to the sound of the ocean trying to lull him to sleep. He was warm and comfortable with his senses taking in the presence of Squall.

Whoever it was that had sent him back in time – whatever their intentions had been – Seifer felt immensely grateful that he had this now. He'd never felt so happy or content or... complete before.

"You are my boyfriend, aren't you?" Squall muttered, not really asking.

Sleepily, Seifer opened his eyes and nodded. "We've even been on an official date now."

Twisting in Seifer's arms, Squall pressed a kiss against his mouth. Before Seifer could really kiss back, Squall had already pulled away from his face and snuggled against Seifer's chest again. "Huh... I never really thought I'd be interested enough in someone to date them. Now I can't get enough of you. Where'd that come from?" he mumbled, probably not really intending to say any of it aloud.

"So this is where you two lovebirds have been hiding." Zell's annoyed voice effectively ruined the moment. Looking up at the tattooed blonde, Seifer and Squall both glared at him. Swallowing nervously, Zell took a step back. "Quistis thinks we should head back to Garden now and report everything that's happened. We've been looking everywhere for you two."

"Fine," Squall told him, sliding forward a little and then standing up.

Seifer waited a few seconds, taking the time to ogle Squall's ass, before rising as well. "So, do you think Xu and Irvine have managed to accidentally blow up Garden yet?" Seifer asked innocently, eliciting an amused snicker from Squall.

"I'm sure that _they _haven't destroyed it... but Selphie is another story entirely." Squall paused and then added, "we're going to Trabia Garden tomorrow to check on things there. I'm sure she'll want to find out if her friends made it."

"Yeah..." Seifer's mirth evaporated at the thought of just how many people were likely dead at the destroyed Garden... how many _children_ had been killed when the academy had been bombarded by the bombs...

Squall's hand slid into Seifer's and tightened. Looking quizzically over at the brunet, Seifer saw puzzled concern on Squall's face. Smiling reassuringly at Squall, Seifer threaded his fingers through Squall's and squeezed back.

* * *

Flopping onto the empty bed, Seifer kicked off his shoes and lay there, willing his irritation to leave him. There were only eighteen people in the Security division (not counting himself or Irvine) and out of that eighteen, there was exactly one who was making herself notably useful. After revealing to his department that Galbadia Garden was airborne and a threat, Jade Emrys – a girl who was beautiful in the same manner as Rinoa, though their height and facial features were different – had immediately started brainstorming possible ways to maintain base security should Galbadia Garden attack. She was the only one out of eighteen to do so.

He'd only spent an hour-and-a-half in his office with his subordinates (save for the ones who were patrolling Garden's perimeter and halls), but it was enough to give Seifer a horrible headache that was more like a borderline migraine. Afterwards, Seifer had retreated to Squall's room... which was empty save for himself. Squall was obviously still at hard at work.

Curling up on himself, Seifer closed his eyes and took a deep breath, inhaling Squall's scent on the sheets and pillows. Almost instantaneously, the pain in his skull began to lessen. Drifting off into that place between being asleep and being awake, Seifer dozed until he felt the bed dip beside him.

Looking up, Seifer's eyes took in the sight of Squall hovering over him. It didn't last long, however; the moment Squall realized that Seifer was staring up at him, the brunet leaned down over him, drawing Seifer into a passionate, needy kiss.

Seifer reached up, pushing Squall's jacket off of him and running his hands lightly over Squall's arms. "Squall..." Seifer was cut off by Squall kissing his way down his neck, pausing only to pull his shirt up over his head, but leaving Seifer's arms tangled in the material over his head. "Nnh..." Bucking his hips at the feeling of Squall latching his mouth onto a nipple and teasing it with his teeth and tongue, Seifer moaned and struggled to free his hands, desperate to turn the tables and wring a few delicious sounds from Squall's mouth. But there was also something else...

Finally managing to pull his trapped arms free, Seifer grabbed onto Squall and rolled them over. He pinned Squall against the bed and said... "what's wrong?"

"Wha..."

"Squall, you've got this look in your eyes that says that something is wrong and so you're trying to put it out of your mind for a while... by having sex with me. While I certainly don't object to having sex with you, I'd like to think I can be useful for more than that." Seifer pressed his hips against Squall's and added, "you woke me up, so we'll definitely be getting back to the sex here in a minute, but first..." he bit back a moan as Squall squirmed underneath him, "tell me what's wrong," he finished breathlessly.

"Xu knows about us. She... thinks that we're going to screw things up with one another and then screw up our jobs because of it." Squall closed his eyes and took slow, deep breaths as he tried to calm down enough to think clearly for the conversation that was clearly going to ensue.

"Xu wants us to break up for the job, huh?"

"Yeah..."

"Well, we'll just have to prove her wrong, then. She'll see, eventually, that we're capable of keeping our relationship and our jobs separate. Until then... she'll just have to keep her nose out of our business." Lowering his face as he spoke until his mouth was even with Squall's face, Seifer began to lick and nibble at the edges of Squall's ear and reveled in the feeling of Squall writhing beneath him, a low whimper emanating from the shorter man's throat.

Squall's hands ran up and down Seifer's bare chest and then pushed him, flipping them back over again so that Squall was, once more, on top. "That's all you've got to say about that? She..."

"Doesn't exactly have the authority to tell us who we can and cannot be romantically involved in." Seifer's breath hitched as Squall grabbed the hem of his own shirt and pulled it off, tossing it aside before pressing himself against against Seifer and returning his attention to Seifer's nipples. "Fuck..." Seifer tried to collect his thoughts, but damn if Squall wasn't making that utterly impossible... "Sh-she... nnhh... Squall..." the brunet had switched his from one pink nub to the next, his nimble fingers tweaking the one already slick with saliva. "Ah..."

Squall hummed in amusement and moved his face away despite Seifer's dizzy protests. "What she said upset me. It used to be that all we did was fight... because we're both so stubborn. But then... you also looked out for me, didn't you?"

"Huh?" Seifer panted for breath, his brain trying to catch up.

"You distracted me with sparring when I'd get overstressed. You'd drag me to the cafeteria when I'd forget about a meal..." Squall said leadingly.

"You've always been important to me," Seifer responded honestly, wanting to get back to the part where Squall did things with his mouth that drove all thoughts from his mind. He'd completely forgotten why he'd thought conversing would be a better idea than going straight to the sex. "You've always made me a little crazy, too."

"Whether we're fighting..." Squall ran his fingertips lightly over Seifer's scar and his eyes flickered shut at the feeling. The next thing he knew, Squall's voice had lowered to the level of a seductive whisper from somewhere near his ear, "or fucking... or talking... I feel the most alive when I'm with you. So I think you're right. We're going to prove her wrong."

They didn't really talk much after that...

* * *

While Squall was busy sending off a few scouting parties to search for information on the movements of Galbadia Garden and hunt for additional Guardian Forces for possible use in the upcoming battle against the Sorceress, Xu decided to pay Seifer a little visit.

"Almasy?" she asked, walking into his office.

He'd been working on emergency plans that would, with any luck, keep the students safe during an attack from another Garden, and Seifer was particularly unhappy that Xu was the one interrupting him. "Huh... come to tell me that I shouldn't be dating my commanding officer?"

Xu scowled as the door shut behind her. "So, I see Squall shared what I told him last night."

"Yeah, he did. I'm just wondering where you got the impression that the relationship between Squall and myself was any of your business." Seifer's hands curled into fists, but he stayed seated.

Even though she hadn't been invited to take a seat, Xu settled into a chair anyway. "As Headmistress and one of the two highest ranking SeeD in this Garden, I have to ensure that no one compromises the functionality of this facility. What happens when your relationship inevitably comes to an end? The two of you are the sort of people where this thing between you could only end explosively. As Security Chief and Commander... it's bound to affect your ability to work with him negatively, and vice versa."

"Wow... you have no sense of romance whatsoever, Xu," Seifer cocked his head to the side and offered her a smirk. "Why are you so certain things will end between us at all? Because we're so young or because we're both so damn stubborn?"

"Perhaps because when you two first hooked up you got those scars." Xu gave him a cold look. "Scarring up your lover isn't the greatest way to start a relationship, after all."

"Oh... is that what it is?" Seifer laughed and shook his head. "What happened was unintentional. We were both... distracted. Honestly, Xu... you don't know the story of what happened and I have no intention of explaining it to you. I get that you're worried about Garden, and maybe even about Squall, but this really is none of your business. We're not going to automatically side with each other on Garden issues just because we're together and we're not going to go up in flames, either."

"Do you love him?"

"I'm getting there." Seifer shrugged, amused by Xu's rather stunned expression in response to his honesty. "Go back to work, Xu. I'm sure you have more important things to do than interrogate me about my intentions towards our intrepid Commander."

"Does he know you still call him things like that?" Xu asked, rising uncertainly from her chair.

"I'm sure he prefers it to Ice Princess and all those other names I've called him throughout the years," Seifer drawled, smirking.

"I still don't think you two will last," Xu sighed, shaking her head. "I'm being realistic; the two of you have been at odds far too long for this to be anything more than lust. I think you're just confusing it for something more. Perhaps, Seifer, you're too much of a romantic."

"Think what you like, Xu. It won't change a thing." Seifer watched, torn between anger at her presumption and amusement at her inability to see, as Xu walked out of his office. Looking down at his plans, Seifer let out a soft growl. His concentration was shot now; he wanted to go kill things, but the training center was still far too close to empty for him to be able to blow off steam reliably.

Maybe he could convince Squall to take an early lunch and they could do something much more pleasurable than fighting...

* * *

Lunch was neither early, nor did it come with a nooner, much to Seifer's dismay. In fact, Seifer was forced to take a late lunch just to be able to have lunch with Squall at all. The upside to all this, however, was that by then they'd landed just outside of Trabia Garden and, as soon as they were done eating, the two of them joined Selphie, Irvine, Zell, and Quistis in order to head into the other Garden and see what they could do to help.

"Looks pretty bad," Squall said as they walked up to the main gate.

"Once again, you are the master of understatement," Seifer responded, feeling rather shocked by the destruction he saw. Trabia Garden's halo was lopsided and broken, at least two thirds of the second and third floors had collapsed, and the air still had a somewhat acrid scent to it. "Damn... this place was almost flattened."

"From the look of it, a few of the missiles were flying too low and detonated against the surrounding mountains," Irvine observed. "I guess that means it could have been worse... not that this isn't..."

"Shocking?" filled in Quistis.

"'Shocking' describes it perfectly," Zell muttered.

Hands clenched into fists, Selphie made her way up to the gate and kicked it, hard. The metal rattled, but didn't budge. "It's locked. I'm gonna climb over and see who I can find."

"Be careful," Squall told her. "We'll be right behind you."

Once they were all on the other side of the gate, they split up into groups of two to wander around the compound. Seifer had every intention of going with Squall... right up until Selphie latched onto his arm like a little leech. "I want to hang out with you for a bit," she declared. "Squall, I'm stealing Seifer for a little while."

"What if I don't want to be stolen?" Seifer complained, trying to shake her off. Selphie just clung that much more fiercely.

"Too bad," she told him.

"Whatever," Squall responded, an amused smirk touching his lips. "Have fun." His voice was definitely mocking now.

Seifer growled. _Dammit..._

"We'll meet up at the quad... or what's left of it, in an hour. Understood?" Squall waited for everyone to respond and then sent them off.

Selphie squealed joyfully and tugged Seifer off in a seemingly random direction. He could have just stood their and let her pull ineffectively at his arm, but... he was a little curious as to why she'd picked him instead of Irvine. Though, Seifer thought he knew the answer already.

"So... why me and not Irvine?"

"You feel like a big brother to me," Selphie told him, releasing his arm and smiling up at him. "I've got feelings for Irvine that are of the romantic sort but... my home went kablooey. I might cry. I'd rather my brother saw me break down in tears than my love interest. Besides... I wanna see if I can trip you up into saying something about you and Squall."

"Thought so," Seifer laughed and ruffled her hair. "So... big brother Seifer, huh? You do realize this makes Fujin your sister?"

"Yep!" Selphie bounced happily. "She's soooo cool. Do you think she could teach me to be as cool as her?"

"Sorry, Coppercurls. No one can be as cool as Fujin. It's an unwritten rule of the posse."

"Awww..." Selphie sighed and then perked up. "Oh, I know her! Come on, Seifer!" The redheaded SeeD raced over to a cadet who'd been shifting some of the debris. "Alice!"

"Huh..." the cadet, a tall, willowy girl with large, luminous blue eyes. She saw Selphie and waved, a smile lighting up her face. "Selphie!" She pulled the shorter girl into a hug. "Hey! It's so good to see you."

"Likewise, Alice. The cute, blonde guy behind me is Seifer." Seifer waved and Alice laughed, waving back while she continued to hug Selphie. After a few moments, however, Selphie pulled away, her face growing uncharacteristically somber. "What happened when the missiles hit?"

Seifer could barely stand to hear the answer. There had been four classes in session at the time of the attack and nearly all the students in the classes had been killed. Everyone in the dorms, training area, and first floor areas had survived, but the top floor had been obliterated; nearly all the high ranking members of the Garden were dead.

Just as she'd feared, Selphie did cry. Seifer let the girl sob softly as he rubbed her shoulder without saying a word. In the face of so much loss, there wasn't much that could be said that didn't sound horrifyingly trite. Eventually, though, she got a hold of herself and filled in Alice on what had been happening with the Sorceress. She got Seifer to help explain the things she was a little fuzzy on and they were both very careful to make it clear that Minion had nothing to do with the missile attacks and was most definitely being controlled through some sort of magic.

"We're going to want to join your Garden," Alice said quietly, yet confidently. "There's no way we can avenge our losses unless we're allowed to transfer to Balamb Garden immediately."

"You'll have to take that up with our Commander and Headmistress," Seifer told her. "Get together with the rest of the survivors, send a representative back with us when we return to Garden, and I'm sure Xu and Squall will hear you guys out."

"I suppose that'll have to do for now," Alice agreed reluctantly.

"Selphie, we should head for the quad now." Seifer gestured for her to lead the way and followed her out of the ruins into an area filled with several mostly intact basketball courts.

"Anxious to be back with your boyfriend?" Selphie teased.

"More like I'm anxious to get him alone in a room with a bed," Seifer joked back, following the girl closer to where the others had congregated.

"Oh... sounds hot and heavy, huh?"

"Nice alliteration," Seifer told her, smirking.

"Oh, come on, spill! Spill!" Selphie pouted as her hair got ruffled.

Squall, Zell, Irvine, and Quistis were all already there. Zell and Irvine were playing basketball, but the cracks in the court were making things more than a little difficult. Squall seemed lost in thought, perched atop a short section of broken wall, while Quistis was leaning against a taller section of wall, her arms crossed and eyes closed.

"Sorry to keep you waiting! Thanks so much for coming all the way out here, everyone." Selphie grinned and tackled-glomped Irvine. "There were a lot of deaths... most everyone who survived is going to want to come with us when we leave so that they can help us fight the Sorceress. We Trabians... deserve to have a chance at revenge!"

"I agree," Squall told her. "But that's something I have to get Xu to agree on. I'll talk to her about it when we return to our Garden.

"All this destruction..." Irvine hugged Selphie close. "It reminds me of the Summer before I was adopted. There was a fire at Orphanage; some freak lightning strike set the roof ablaze. Afterwards, the place looked a little like this, with bits and pieces of our home everywhere except where they ought to have been."

"Yeah... that was the year we were sent to Balamb Garden," Seifer recalled. "If you hadn't been adopted, you'd have come with us."

"Us?" Zell echoed. "Who else was at that place with you two?"

"I was," Squall spoke up. "But the only person I really remember from there is Seifer. Everyone else is just sort of... fuzzy." He shrugged. "It was a long time ago."

"Yeah... but I remember pretty clearly," Irvine told him. "There was this one girl there... she was really special to me. She was my best friend; a crazy little redheaded girl I called 'Sefie.'"

"W-was that orphanage... a stone house?" Selphie asked, still hugging Irvine tightly.

"You guessed it," Irvine responded, idly petting her hair.

"I called you Irvy," Selphie said suddenly. "I was Sefie and you were Irvy. How could I have forgotten? I cried for weeks when I was taken away from you." She looked genuinely appalled at herself.

"Hey, don't worry about it, Selphie," Irvine kissed her forehead. "Like Squall said, it was a long time ago. But... the four of us weren't the only ones there."

"Wasn't it by the ocean... with a lighthouse at the end of the beach?" Quistis filled in slowly, her eyes open now, but distant.

"Oh, yeah! The lighthouse..." Selphie grinned. "The stairs were dangerous and we weren't supposed to go inside, but we'd dare each other to go up to the top all the time."

"How long have the two of you known we were there with you?" Quistis demanded, looking sharply from Seifer to Irvine.

Seifer wandered over and settled onto the wall beside Squall. "I've still got an album full of pictures from Orphanage and I don't use GFs half as much as most people at Balamb do. So when I'd forget something because of the Guardian Forces, I could make myself remember later. But the rest of you... after the first few times I got someone to remember and they'd forget a few days later, I gave up on keeping you guys in the loop about Orphanage. I just... didn't see the point of wasting my time."

"No one else seemed to remember when Seifer and I brought up Orphanage in Galbadia," Irvine added. "I figured there was a reason for that, so I dropped the subject. But... I didn't want us to stay the only ones who remembered. I didn't realize you remembered some of Orphanage, though, Squall."

"As I said, most of it's fuzzy."

"All you really remember is your boyfriend," Selphie added, giggling.

"Selphie, try to remember that I can control your paycheck," Squall grumbled, his face growing a little flushed looking.

"Uh... did we set off fireworks on the beach?" Zell asked hesitantly.

"Yeah, but you tattled on us, Chicken-wuss," Seifer complained.

"Stop calling me that!"

"Then stop wearing your hair like the rear-end of a chocobo!"

Irvine and Selphie burst into helpless laughter and even Quistis had to hide a smile behind her hand. Squall snorted in amusement as Zell fumed.

"My hair does not look like a chocobo," Zell grumbled and the froze. "Wait, but how can I remember this. I have a family in Balamb. I wasn't adopted... was I?"

"You were there, though," Quistis insisted. "You told on us, like Seifer said. We all got into so much trouble..."

"It was worth it," Selphie interjected. "Totally worth it. The fireworks were so awesome to watch."

"You were adopted the year before Irvine was, Dincht," Seifer said, taking pity on Zell's lost expression. "Selphie was the first one to be adopted and Quistis was the third. Squall and I never were; we wound up going straight into Garden."

"There was someone else there with us, too," Squall told them. "She was older than us. We called her Sis, but her name was Ellone."

"Ellone... that girl the Galbadian Army is looking for?" Quistis asked.

Irvine nodded. "She treated us all like we were her little siblings, but Squall... was the one we all thought was really related to her."

"I don't know if she is related to me... but she disappeared one night. I waited for her to come back, but she never did." Squall shrugged absently. "I was never alone, though. Someone would never leave me be," he gave Seifer a pointed look. The blonde gunblader just smiled innocently.

"Ellone's the one who's been taking us to the Dream World to see Laguna, right?" Selphie asked.

"Yeah. She hasn't done it since she left Balamb Garden," Seifer said.

Squall bumped his shoulder lightly against Seifer's. "Hopefully she listened to what you told her."

"What did you tell her?" Quistis asked, suddenly hungry for information about her missing 'Sis.'

"Just that she potentially puts everyone in danger when she sends people to the Dream World. Whatever she wants to accomplish... it isn't worth the price she might wind up paying if someone dies because she left us unable to defend ourselves." Seifer shrugged. "She didn't seem to be listening, however, so I doubt she's stopped for good."

"She said she wanted to change the past, but she didn't say why," Squall added. "I hope she fails; in changing her past, she'd change our pasts as well. We wouldn't be the people we are today; we'd be strangers."

"When you put it like that... then even though she was part of our orphanage gang, I don't want to help her out," Zell sighed sadly. "I like the way my life has gone so far. I like the person that I am."

"But why did we all forget about Orphanage?" Selphie asked. "I had loads of fun at Trabia, but the rest of you? Can Guardian Forces really cause so much memory loss?"

"Things didn't work out too well at my new home, so I came to Garden when I was ten. That's when I first noticed Seifer and Squall again; you two were always fighting."

"Training, not fighting," they chorused, giving her equally annoyed looks. Seifer added, "you always tried to stop us and just got in the way."

"Always looked more like plain old fighting than actual training. But... if you two insist it was 'training' then I'm sure that's exactly what it was." She smirked as they continued to glower at her.

"I've read a few studies on GFs," Irvine told them. "It makes a place inside our brain since it's made out of energy. But the leading theory on them right now is that their energy can cause interruptions in the memory centers of the host's brain, leading to memory loss. It isn't believed to be permanent memory loss, and being able to remember with prompting certainly lends credence to the theory."

"I thought that was just a rumor being spread by critics of the GFs." Quistis frowned and shook her head. "That's what the Shumi staff always said, anyway."

"They always got upset when I'd argue that point with them," Seifer said. "Trust me; the GFs were what kept you guys from remembering Orphanage. It was made pretty obvious to me what was happening."

Zell paled. "So, if we keep relying on the GFs, we won't be able to remember a lot of things?"

"There's no way Headmaster Cid would allow such a dangerous thing!" Quistis denied.

"Just like Kraemer would never allow a Garden wide riot to break out or avoid giving straight answers to the question of whether or not the Sorceress is actually his missing wife, Edea Kraemer?" Seifer asked. "Just like he'd never let NORG corrupt Garden policy or allow money to become the leading factor in choosing missions? Wake up, Quistis. Kraemer isn't the saintly old man you seem determined to believe he is."

"Well, he isn't the screw up you think he is either," Quistis shot back. "Besides... Selphie's first experience with a GF was when she came to Balamb Garden. Right, Selphie?"

"About that... I have a confession to make! When I was 12, I went on an outdoor training session. I found a GF inside one of the monsters I defeated... I junctioned that GF for a while. So I have experience with GF, too. But...but, it's really weird! I can't remember the name of that GF!"

"Then... it must be the GF's fault," Quistis finally conceded. "What should we do?"

"Nothing," Squall told her.

Outraged, Zell snapped, "what do you mean nothing!"

Squall pinned Zell with an intense stare as he told the tattooed blonde, "what do you want to do? You wanna stop using GF now? As long as we continue fighting, we're indebted to the powers of the GF. If there's a price I have to pay for that, I'll gladly pay it."

"I know!" Selphie bounced, "let's all keep a diary! That way we'll always have something to trigger our lost memories. Or we could have photo albums like Seifer's."

"Are you sure that's what you want!" Zell demanded. Then, calming down and actually thinking about it, he said, "maybe...that's for the best. Yeah... I don't care if I forget about my childhood. What's important to me now is having the power to protect my parents in Balamb. They adopted me. There's no way I'm letting go of that power!"

Quistis spoke up again, asking "do you all remember Matron?"

"She always wore black..." Zell offered after a long moment.

"She was very kind with long black hair," Quistis continued. "I really admired her. She seemed quiet and sad at times... but always so strong. I wanted to be just like her one day."

"Yeah, but the lady I remember resembles... the Sorceress."

"Matron was Kraemer's wife, Edea. She's been missing for about a year now," Seifer told them. "She is the Sorceress, in all likelihood, but Kraemer won't admit anything. I didn't remember her until after what NORG said in the basement... but afterwards it wasn't hard to put two and two together." It was a complete lie, but the others didn't need to know that.

"But why is she...?" Zell trailed off hesitantly.

"Why? You're wondering why Matron would take over a country, or fire missiles and whatnot?" Irvine shrugged and hugged Selphie even more tightly. "At this point, we probably wouldn't comprehend it even if we talked about it."

"SeeD and Garden were all Matron's idea, weren't they?" Seifer asked, directing his question at Irvine.

The cowboy nodded. "Yeah. The organization known as SeeD was begun in order to fight Sorceresses in the future who go mad with power. I think that maybe she was creating a fail-safe, in case she was consumed by her powers like Adel supposedly was."

"No, Adel lost her Knight and the bond between them snapped. That's what sent her off the deep end," Seifer corrected. "Something else must have happened to Matron."

"Well, whatever happened to her, she's become the very enemy that she wanted us trained to fight," Irvine finished.

"That's so strange, though..." Squall mused. "When I was being tortured at D-District," Seifer slid his hand over and took hold of Squall's at that point, "the person interrogating me didn't have the first idea as to what Garden's purpose was. He said that the Sorceress wanted to know the answer. But if Matron is the Sorceress, then why doesn't she already know?"

"Maybe we're still missing information," Seifer offered.

"So we're going to fight Matron..." Zell shuddered. "Can we really do that?"

"We don't have a choice. Nothing in life can prepare us to fight against a friend or someone we care about," Seifer told him. "But we have to make ourselves do it anyway, because if we don't... they'll continue down a path that, when we knew them, they'd have never chosen on their own. We have to stop Matron for the sake of who she was – the kind woman who cared for us. Matron would never have wanted to become this Sorceress."

"Seifer's right," Selphie agreed. "We have to stop Matron for her sake and, as people who care for her, we're the only ones who can do that without taking away all her dignity."

"Then let's do it together." Zell sounded the way he had as a kid when he'd be on the verge of tears, but his eyes were most definitely dry. "We can't run from her for the rest of our lives, after all." Quistis nodded, also looking rather depressed by the way the conversation had turned.

"Look! Look!" Selphie waved her right hand towards the sky as snow started to fall. "A gift from the faeries!"

"Yo, you wanna go check out Edea's orphanage?" Zell then proceeded to lean his head back and stick out his tongue in an attempt to catch some of the snow.

Irvine snickered in amusement, but said, "we might find a clue if we do."

"Nice rhyme," Seifer drawled. "Do you really think we'd find something at Orphanage that would explain why Matron's trying to conquer the planet?"

"Probably not, but it'd be nice to see the place again."

"Even if we do find out the truth about the past, it won't change the present," Squall warned them. "I'd like to see the place, too, though. I don't know what we'll find when we get there, but... let's head for the Orphanage."

A/N - Well, there you have it... the crazy "We all lived at the same orphanage!" scene has been written without a trace of Rinoa. Next up, the battle of the Gardens. It'll probably be posted somewhere around three weeks from now. I'm sleepy again... so... bye.


	15. Chapter 13

Disclaimer – I don't own Final Fantasy VIII. Too bad for me, huh?

A/N - So, my broken arm is healing quite well, as is my broken finger. My knee is mostly back to normal; it's a little sore, but I can walk around on it fine. Rabbit won't let me out of her sight, except to wander around the backyard every so often. I never realized she had such a protective streak. Kit says that I must be my dog's favorite pet human. ^_~ Anyway, this is the chapter where things start to change a little more dramatically than your used to, though it might not become obvious until the next chapter. I've also become quite fond of letting Seifer and Selphie interact; she's very good at slipping in loaded questions in the middle of a conversation.

Also, this is a day later than I meant it to be. I got the story uploaded to the site late last night, but the internet went out a few minutes later. My dad was playing with a new toy while on his computer, I was on my computer, and he was running an air-conditioning window-unit. Needless to say that the power in that part of the house died, taking the internet and my computer with it. Rather than wait for him to fix it and get everything back online (it took him a while to find the fuse box in the dark since he couldn't be bothered to find the flashlight first) so that I could boot my computer back up, reconnect with fanfiction and spend time doing the final chapter edit... I put it off until today in order to sleep. That being said, I'm now going to go through the earlier chapters and fix the formatting since the website has killed what Kit and I have been using for our scene breaks. I'll also try to catch a few more of those pesky errors that slip by us.

_Chapter 13_

Seifer managed to find seven more Security volunteers from amongst the Trabian SeeDs, which made him very happy. Twenty-five was a much more reasonable number than eighteen, though it was still fewer than he'd have liked. He immediately set them to work, reshuffling a few weapons locker locations in order to make the xep-2s more accessible to the quad and front gate.

Then Seifer spent the rest of the trip to Centra pacing in his office and going over the plans he'd made for securing the cadets who were still in Garden. All underclassmen were to report to their dorms immediately while the upperclassmen were to take up sentry positions at all access points. None of the dorms along the outer wall had windows large enough for an aerial attack to do much good, so they ought to be fine... theoretically.

There wasn't really anywhere else they could go, though. The cafeteria had huge windows and four open-air balconies. The classrooms had large windows as well; sending the children to class would be like waving them in front of the Galbadians and saying 'kill the annoying little brats, why don't you?' The quad... didn't even deserve to have all the reasons why it was a terrible place for the students to hide listed. It was too obvious. The Training Center had the 'secret place' as an open-air balcony. The Doctor needed to keep her infirmary open for casualties and having little kids eager to go play hero would only hinder her effectiveness.

So the dorms were it. Everywhere else... would have to be filled with SeeD fighting the Galbadian invaders. Everything else lay in Squall's hands, as base commander.

After placing Fuu and Rai in charge of the upperclassmen in the event of an emergency... like an attack from another Garden, Seifer settled down in his office to wait. Part of him hoped that Galbadia Garden would just attack them already so that they could get it over with. Another part of him, however, hoped that the other Garden wouldn't show up after all... fighting his friend, Minion, and his mother, Edea, wasn't exactly something he thought he'd ever be prepared for. No one could ever be prepared for something like that.

The intercom crackled to life, interrupting Seifer's thoughts. "This is Squall speaking. This is an emergency so listen carefully. We're going into battle against Galbadia Garden. The enemy will likely try to come aboard. SeeD with ID numbers that are even, report to the quad. Those with odd ID numbers, report to the front gate. Additionally, Seifer, Quistis, Zell, Selphie, and Irvine, report to the bridge immediately." There was a high-pitched whine as the intercom shut back down.

"I would have liked to have more warning..." Seifer muttered before leaving the office behind.

* * *

"What do you want us to do?" Quistis' voice greeted Seifer as he walked into the 'bridge.' He was the last one there, barely getting a nod of acknowledgment from Squall as he moved to stand between Irvine and Xu.

"I want you guys to help me lead the others." Squall glanced over them for a second, the rapid speed his mind was working at obvious to Seifer, at the very least. "Quistis, Zell... you two work together and lead the team at the front gate. Selphie, Seifer... the second floor classrooms need to be evacuated and shut off from the rest of the building; I want the two of you to take care of that. Irvine, you're with me; we'll be taking charge of the quad. Xu, I want you to stay here and coordinate things through the intercom system."

They all chorused a variety of things from 'aye sir' to 'you got it' at about the same time, putting an amused smile on Nida's face, even as their driver tried to hide his reaction.

"Seifer, you mentioned something about making certain the students would be taken care of..." Squall trailed off leadingly and Seifer nodded.

"All underclassmen are confined to their dorms while upperclassmen, under the DC's supervision, are keeping the entrances to that area locked down until Garden is no longer under attack. I think Fuu recruited Rinoa in order to keep her out of trouble, so she shouldn't try any last minute heroics this time," Seifer reported, getting an amused look from Squall.

"Good. She'd probably fall off of Garden or something if she tried to help." Squall looked relieved – one less problem to worry about. "All right, you've all got your orders. Let's move out."

Seifer nodded and ruffled Selphie's hair as he led her out of the room. The two of them opted to take the stairs to the second floor while the others got in the elevator.

"So... I've been wonder, Seifer... did you remember me from Orphanage the way you remembered everyone else?" Selphie asked as they checked the first classroom off the stairs. It was, fortunately, empty.

"Yeah, I remembered you." Seifer gave her an odd look. "I figured you'd either forgotten me or simply didn't recognize me. After all... we were just kids back then. You still called me your brother in Trabia, before you even remembered Orphanage, so it isn't like we'd lost something."

"Oh... and Irvine is still my most important person. I guess the things we don't remember well carry over anyway." Selphie nodded slowly. They checked another classroom, this time finding an instructor and twelve students. "Hey, everyone, it's not safe here. You should all head for the dorms where everything's been secured, okay?" Selphie chirped.

"We're about to go into battle with Galbadia Garden," Seifer reminded them when the instructor started to protest. "That means aerial attacks as well as ground based attacks and whatever else they can think of throwing at us. The dorms are the least vulnerable to incursions from the air while these classrooms..." he gestured to the giant windows, effectively winning the argument before it even had a chance to begin. "Take the stairs. If we're attacked while your in the elevator, it could be dangerous for you," he added.

"You're right, SeeD Almasy," the instructor responded unhappily. "Come along, cadets. We're evacuating to the dorms."

"Two down, eighteen more classrooms to go."

"Only twenty classrooms total?" Selphie asked in surprise. "I thought there were more than that. There are so many cadets on campus..."

"There are twenty classrooms and five lecture halls," Seifer responded. "There are usually about twenty-five cadets per class, who are placed according to ability, not age. There are about seventy-five cadets in each grade level, so..." he trailed off with a shrug and checked another classroom which was, thankfully, empty. "That puts the number of cadets on campus around 450, with only eighteen classrooms necessary for use during the school year. The other two classrooms get used for special classes and once a year by Dr. Kadowaki when she gives the underclassmen 'the talk,'" Seifer used air quotations, much to Selphie's amusement.

"The sex talk," she filled in with a wicked grin. "The lady who gave that talk to the girls at Trabia always blushed and looked away when she said the word 'sex.' I never quite managed to figure out what was up with that, but we totally had fun making the poor woman cringe."

"Dr. Kadowaki is in charge of that here," Seifer recalled with great amusement just how truly unflappable the doctor really was. "Some of the guys in my class tried to get her embarrassed about giving the sex talk to the boys, but she wound up embarrassing them instead. It was priceless."

"Really, what did she do?"

"She put whoopee cushions in their seats during the lunch break," Seifer responded.

Selphie giggled as she checked door number four. There were no students there either. "How many classes were in session today?" she asked suddenly.

"I'm not sure. It's Summer semester right now, so about half the cadets went home and the ones who remain typically sign up for revision courses. I think there are about seven in session right now, but... don't hold me to that number, okay?"

"Right."

"Squall! Get back to the bridge right away!" Nida demanded over the intercom.

"Looks like something came up that Xu isn't sure how to deal with," Selphie observed as Seifer checked the fifth classroom.

This time there were cadets inside, along with one of Seifer's old instructors: Instructor Horowitz. Horowitz was all for following the chain of command, but he'd never been particularly fond of Seifer. Hopefully, though, he'd still follow orders from Seifer regardless of his longstanding dislike of the teen.

"Instructor, you need to get these cadets to the dorms," Seifer told him.

"Regulations require cadets remain off of the first floor during a crisis situation..." Horowitz protested.

"Then you haven't had a chance to get the memo yet," Seifer responded coldly. "The classrooms are the least safest place for the cadets during an aerial battle. The new regulations are to get them to safety in the dorms. Now, if you've got a problem with that, you can take it up with me once we're done kicking Galbadian ass.

"Do your job, Instructor. Keep the cadets safe."

There was a long pause while the Instructor and his ten cadets hurried out of the room. Then, when the others were finally out of earshot, Selphie said, "I take it that you don't like him much."

"He's the most anal-retentive instructor in the whole of Garden. No, I really don't like him."

"So... why did you decide to become SeeD, anyway?" Selphie asked, checking classroom number six. It, too, was empty. "I mean... there seems to be so many reasons for you to hate this place."

"What do you mean?"

"Well... you don't really respect ex-Headmaster Cid much, the instructors I've met – except for Quisty, who isn't one anymore – seem to think your some sort of delinquent hooligan, and you had to form the Disciplinary Committee just to ensure that the cadets had a group they could go to when bad things happened to them." Selphie shrugged. "I guess I just don't get what made you decide to stick around. After all, you decided to become SeeD way before you and Squally hooked up."

"Have you ever seen something so obviously broken that you can't help but want to fix it?" Seifer shrugged. "That's how I see Garden. Besides, it's a challenge just to qualify for SeeD. I love challenges."

"Really?" Selphie waggled her eyebrows suggestively. "Does that mean you'd describe Squall as a challenge?"

The Garden rocked, jarring the duo to the ground and interrupting their conversation. Over the intercom, Squall could be heard shouting orders; "the enemy Garden is right by us! Quad team! Watch out!" The building shuddered again, harder this time.

Seifer leapt to his feet and told Selphie, "that's enough conversation right now. I'll take the left side of the hall and you take the right. Let's get this over with."

* * *

"Dispose of this Garden as planned!"

Selphie shook her head and laughed, gaining the attention of the six Galbadian soldiers who'd broken in through the classroom window. Seifer and Selphie had just walking into what was the last classroom they needed to check and, as these things always seemed to go, it naturally held the last summer session class as well as a bunch of enemy soldiers.

"Dispose of Garden?" Selphie shook her head again. "No way in hell, mister."

"Instructor, get these cadets to the dorms," Seifer hissed, moving to stand between the soldiers and underclassmen.

"Yes sir," the lady instructor responded automatically, easing the young students towards the door as Selphie moved to stand with Seifer.

The Galbadians attacked at once, not expecting two SeeD to be a match for six of them. Of course, this was one of the reasons why Galbadian soldiers were morons.

Seifer knocked back the first soldier to reach him by kicking the man in the chest. Quickly regaining his balance, Seifer swung Hyperion around and slammed it against another soldier's armor. The gunblade didn't quite manage to pierce the suit, but the blast from pulling the trigger dropped the soldier so that his head hit a desk awkwardly and put him out despite his helmet.

Raising his free hand, Seifer cast a Fira on the first soldier who'd attacked him and then brought Hyperion around to parry an attack from a third soldier. He managed to knock the man off balance and shoved Hyperion through the armor's weak spot. Then he cast another Fira on his first attacker, just for good measure. This time the guy screamed in pain, so Seifer was fairly certain he wouldn't be fighting back any time soon.

Turning to see how Selphie was fairing, he smiled in amusement to see two dead or unconscious Galbadians at her feet and a third being choked by her nunchaku.

"Hey, look, we're done," Selphie chirped, releasing the soldier from her weapon's hold. "We ought to hit the first floor now, right?"

"Yeah..." Garden shook again, nearly sending Seifer headfirst into one of the desks, but he managed to regain his balance and grab Selphie, to keep her on her feet. "We should get to the front gate. I get the feeling that the worst of the fighting is there than the quad."

"Aww, that's right. There's been fighting in the quad... and I just got that place looking the way I wanted it to." Selphie mock-pouted and sniffled. As they walked out of the room, she asked, "Seifer... how do you know when you're in love with someone?"

"Why are you asking _me_?"

"You're in love with Squall, aren't you?" How the girl could come up with such innocently loaded questions was completely beyond Seifer's understanding.

"You're wondering if you're in love with Irvine, aren't you?" Seifer queried, figuring it was best to keep answering questions with questions when he wasn't certain of the answer himself.

"I... I am wondering. How am I supposed to know?"

"Well, how do you feel around him... and don't answer with horny. If I'm supposed to be your older brother then there are some things that are classified as 'to much information,' okay?"

Selphie giggled and nodded. "I feel... warm... safe, I suppose. I know he's got my back and that he won't try to leave me behind in a fight. He's got all these quirks that annoy me, but I'd be bored if he didn't have them. I hate it when he flirts with other girls, but that's more of the way he talks than intentional flirting. How I feel is complicated, I guess..."

"Good. Love is supposed to be complicated. Anything worth having – worth fighting for – is going to be confusing and unfathomable and... worth every aggravating second." Seifer paused, his feet slowing as his thoughts turned to his own feelings for Squall.

Squall... his equal. Seifer had literally spent years of his life trying to force Squall to pay attention to him... to care, even the slightest bit, about what happened to Seifer Almasy. Part of him wanted so badly to protect Squall, to put him somewhere he'd be safe, but... Seifer knew he could never get away with that. The only thing he could do was fight by Squall's side so that they could protect each other. They were stronger together and happier together and... every second Seifer spent with Squall, regardless of how they were spending that time, was far superior to every second without him.

What brought Seifer to a complete halt, however, was the realization that he'd break apart if he lost Squall. Even if they were only 'just friends'... if Squall died, Seifer knew that he'd finish their mission against the Sorceress and then be useless to Garden for the rest of his life. Squall was the one who put fire in his veins and made him push harder to be better.

"Oh Hyne!" Selphie's exclamation drew Seifer back to the present. "You just totally realized you're in love with Squall, didn't you?"

"Selphie, we need to get back to work," Seifer responded gently, refusing to answer.

* * *

The last thing Seifer expected when he arrived at the front gate was for Squall to come on the intercom and make a speech, but that was exactly what happened. Hearing his voice soothed away the tired edges that were creeping up on him as he started directing people to use the xep-2s that were stored in the weapons lockers between the library and the gate.

"Everybody, this is Squall." He sounded a little tired himself to Seifer's ears, but there was something else in his voice: determination. "How's everyone doing? You're all probably too tired to even stand up after all the fighting. But I want to everyone to listen to me... We still have a chance to win, and I need your help. This is going to be our final battle. We're going to attack them before they come in again. To do that, we're going to head straight into their Garden. So I want everyone to prepare for a major collision. Brace yourselves for impact and keep the cadets safe.

"Seifer, Irvine, Quistis, Zell, Selphie, and I will lead the attack into their Garden. As for everyone else, please provide whatever support you can.

"SeeD was formed to fight the sorceress: at least, that's what I've heard. And Garden was created to train SeeDs. So this battle is Garden's destiny... _our_ destiny. It's a grueling battle, and I'm sure you guys are all exhausted. But I don't want to have any regrets. I don't want anyone to look back and regret this day. So just this once, I want you guys to give everything you got! For yourselves and for me!"

The intercom shut off with a barely audible click; the SeeD at the gate were too busy cheering over Squall's speech to take notice of it.

"Wow! No wonder Squall's usually so quiet; when he really gets talking, his words are meaningful," Selphie exclaimed, grinning brightly as she grabbed an xep-2 for herself. "Hey, this is that combination electric-projectile gun you and Squall used during our test mission. Feels like that was forever ago, huh?"

"It does feel that way, doesn't it?" Seifer agreed, watching Squall walk out of the elevator. "Looks like we're about to ram Galbadia Garden."

As if on cue, the building shook, sending numerous SeeD to their knees. Squall stumbled on the stairs, but grabbed the railing just as Garden rumbled again. Then everything went deadly still and Seifer realized that Garden had quit moving; they must have pinned Galbadia Garden into the hills like they had in the other timeline.

"OHHH YEAHHH! We're in!" Zell shouted as he raced up to the gates, ready to lead the charge into Galbadia Garden.

"Ready everyone?" Quistis, far more sedate than Zell, asked the group.

"You betcha!" Selphie responded.

"Looks like we're all here," Irvine agreed.

"Then let's move out," Squall ordered them.

Seifer nodded and they all ran out of their Garden and onto the hilltop. A few yards away was an emergency exit for Galbadia Garden that, as luck would have it, was wide open with the door hanging off it's hinges. It had to have been knocked open during the battle at some point, likely jarred so badly by Galbadia Garden's own attacks against Balamb Garden that hitting the hilltop was the final straw.

Running up to the open doorway, Seifer waited for the others to enter and then commented, "that was lucky."

Zell nodded. "Hopefully our luck will hold."

"Wait for us!" a familiar and unwelcome voice shouted.

"You just jinxed us, chicken-wuss" Seifer groaned as Rinoa, followed by a scowling Fujin and a repentant Raijin, hurried on board.

"We're here to help," Rinoa insisted, giving everyone an earnest look.

"I thought you said she wouldn't try to pull any last minute heroics," Squall hissed quietly to Seifer.

"At least she didn't fall off of Garden," Seifer shot back, just as quietly. Louder, he asked, "if you three are here, who is in charge of the cadets?"

"MITCH," Fujin responded, glaring at Rinoa.

"Princess here decided that we'd be more helpful here than there, ya know?" Raijin gestured to Rinoa. "Fujin and I followed her so that she wouldn't break her neck. She's a client of Garden; it'd look bad, ya know?"

"Hey!" Rinoa stomped her foot and glowered at Raijin. "I'm not going to break my neck."

"Whatever. You're here and there isn't enough time to send you back." The look Squall was giving Rinoa would have been lethal if there was any justice in the world. "Stay back and act as our support, alright? Cast protective and healing magic on us when we need it."

"You've got it."

"Fujin, Raijin," Squall turned to them. "Your priority is to keep her safe."

"AFFIRMATIVE," Fujin responded grudgingly.

"We got it, ya know?" Raijin added, grinning brightly at Squall.

"The sorceress should be here somewhere," Irvine observed, looking around the corridor. "I'll bet she's somewhere that's relatively fancy or stately in order to keep up her image as Galbadia's newest dictator."

"Right." Squall took a moment to give everyone from orphanage a thoughtful look. "Now isn't the time to be dwelling on the past," he said after a moment. "Edea's our enemy right now and we can't second guess ourselves on it. We can't fight that way. She chose this, for whatever reason. We've come too far to back down at the last minute."

"Is... do you all know the Sorceress from somewhere?" Rinoa asked. Fuu and Rai glared at her again; they already knew because Seifer had told them after returning from Trabia the day before.

"She used to be the Matron at our orphanage," Selphie told her. "The GFs made us forget, but Irvine and Seifer helped us remember. She's not the person she used to be, though. That person was kind and loving and it's for who she was that we have to stop who she is."

"If we could find a way to stop her without fighting, we would," Zell added, "but it won't work out that way. We just have to do what we can."

"Like Squall said, if we start second guessing our decision to fight her now, we'll never be able to stop her," Quistis added. "We have no choice but to press on."

Rinoa nodded and her expression grew determined. "Then I'll do everything I can to help you achieve that goal. I might not be a great fighter, but I'm not useless. I can keep up," she promised them.

Seifer exchanged dubious looks with Squall and Irvine, but there really wasn't time to send her back. Galbadia Garden could get airborne again any moment and they couldn't risk stranding anyone in the hills.

* * *

As Irvine predicted, they found the Sorceress in the most extravagant room in the Garden: Headmaster Martine's office on the top floor. Of course, they had to run a gauntlet of angry Galbadian soldiers and reassure a few stranded SeeD cadets who were hiding in the classrooms and dorms along the way, but the end result was well worth it.

Unfortunately, Minion was there too.

"Aww, guys..." Minion giggled and there was an edge to her voice, like she was strung out on something. Occasionally, late at night, Seifer would run into a cadet who'd sound the same way because he, or she, decided to be stupid and give 'recreational drugs' a try. Except this definitely wasn't from marijuana or ecstasy or any of the other things Seifer had seen some of the more idiotic cadets accidentally addict themselves to. Minion was basically high on Ultimecia's magic.

Though, come to think of it, that explained why Seifer recalled feeling twisted up when he'd been Ultimecia's Knight in the other timeline. She'd used her magic to control him, in part, by making him act high... or using magic to mimic a high in his system.

"You didn't have to come all this way just for us," Minion continued, giggling again. "We were totally going to visit you ourselves and save you the trip."

"Minion, you don't have to do this," Quistis spoke up worriedly.

"Yeah, Min," Rinoa called from the back of the group. "We're your friends. You don't really want to fight us, do you?"

"Friends?" Minion shook her head. "The only true friend I have is my Lady, Sorceress Edea. But... it wasn't supposed to be this way, was it?" She glanced confusedly towards Ultimecia. "She said there was supposed to be someone else on our side..."

"Cadell, she's using you," Seifer spoke up. "Think about how you're acting, what you're saying... Hyne, it's like you're high on something. This has to stop, Minion."

"Shut up!" she shrieked, her hands clenching into fists. Then she froze, a demented sort of smile alighting on her face. "You... you're the one who's supposed to be on our side. She was so angry when you didn't come to her like you were supposed to, Seifer. She said that she'd made the suggestion some time ago... you should have come.

"Why do you stand with them?"

"I haven't the slightest idea what in hell she's talking about," Seifer announced. It was true, too. Ultimecia had 'made the suggestion?' What was that about?

"She's just trying to mess with you," Squall told him. "There's no way to get through to her with the Sorceress standing right there. We have to fight."

"He right. We have to fight," Minion sing-songed, giggling again. Flicking her wrists, Minion's stilettos dropped into her hands. Tossing her head, Minion's navy hair flipped out of her eyes and lasers shot out towards Zell.

Rolling out of the way, Zell cast Shell and prepared to counter-attack. He'd have probably run in punching, except... Quistis had other ideas.

"Pay attention to me!" Quistis exclaimed, unleashing a wave of missiles from her eyes. (It always disturbed Seifer when she did that.) Immediately, Minion turned to Quistis and back-flipped out of the way of the tiny, oncoming missiles.

"That's right... we have a fight to finish, right Quisty?" Minion laughed and waved her hand, water shooting out towards her fellow blue witch. "You should call me Cadell. Usually that's reserved for friends, but I like hearing my name from hot chicks like you."

"Sorry, Minion, but I'm not interested in a date," Quistis snapped back, using flames to turn the water to steam. Minion yelped in pain as the steam burnt her hand.

"Does anyone else find this scene to be unintentionally sexy?" Irvine asked.

"Yeah," Selphie agreed. Regretfully she added, "we should start fighting the Sorceress now."

"Fuu, Rai... back up Quistis," Seifer told his posse. They nodded in tandem and started filling in the gaps of Quistis' attacks. The rest of them turned towards the Sorceress.

"Such a worthless child," Ultimecia sighed with Edea's voice. "Unable to hold off a force so small..."

Seifer shuddered, remembering how she'd called him the same thing in the other time line... how devastated he'd felt to know he'd failed her. But now... her words held no sway over him. With Squall standing beside him there was nothing the Sorceress could say or do that would manage to phase Seifer.

Together they charged forward, their gunblades moving in tandem as they prepared to take her down. Only seconds before their weapons would have sliced through her tiny frame, Edea sank through the floor and disappeared from view.

"What the hell?" Irvine exclaimed.

"She did the same thing at the parade!" Selphie thwacked the floor with her nunchaku in frustration. "What a coward. She should face us like a good villain so that we can kick her butt."

Zell snickered and shook his head. "I don't think it works like that in real life, Selphie."

"The auditorium is beneath this room," Irvine spoke up. "We should head down there and check for her."

"You're not going anywhere," Minion told them. Somehow she'd gotten in between them and the exit while managing, if only just barely, to hold off her three attackers.

"Yeah, we are," Selphie told her, expertly smacking her in the side of her head with the nunchaku. Minion dropped dizzily to the floor, but she wasn't out of it yet. The magic suffusing her system was too strong to let such a relatively small hit take her down.

It was enough, however, to let some of them get past her.

"Fujin, Raijin, Rinoa, and I will stay here and keep her out of your way," Quistis spoke up while Irvine, Selphie, and Zell darted out into the hall.

Squall nodded. "We're counting on you," he told her, before following the others out.

"Fuu, Rai... do the posse proud, okay?"

"AFFIRMATIVE!"

* * *

The auditorium appeared empty when they walked in and Irvine cursed softly under his breath. "She's not here. Maybe she got away already?"

"No, she's here," Seifer countered.

"How can you tell?" Selphie asked, bouncing on the tips of her toes, as though the extra height might let her see something she was missing.

"Just a feeling, I guess. I think she wants to fight it out now just as much as we do." Seifer shrugged. "Maybe I'm wrong, but I still don't think she's left yet."

"Then where is she?" Squall asked, frustration making his voice sharper than usual. Fortunately, there was no longer a need to wait.

As if she'd been waiting for Squall's words to act as her cue, the giant television broke down the center, the glass-panel screen shattering under the force and raining down over them. Instinctively, they all brought their arms up to shield their faces from the deadly onslaught.

Zell yelped in pain as one of the shards stabbed his right arm. He yanked it out with another shout of pain and healed the wound before it could bleed too much. The rest of them got lucky, however; none of the fragments caused anything worse than a few scratches.

"So the time has come. You're the legendary SeeD destined to face me?" Ultimecia bowed mockingly. "I must say you're quite impressive... for nuisances. Though, my Knight spoke the truth. I worked hard to corrupt you, Almasy. I don't accept that this is the payout of my magic so short a while ago..."

"What the hell are you talking about?" Seifer demanded, gripping Hyperion almost painfully.

"Leave Seifer alone," Squall snarled, adjusting his grip on his revolver.

"You don't remember? Hmmm... _he _must have made you forget with those pet Guardian Forces of his." Edea's eyes watched him curiously. "But that shouldn't have mattered. You should have been drawn away from Garden and to me regardless of whether you could remember. The future should have been changed by my actions that day!"

Waving her hand imperiously, Ultimecia shrugged Edea's shoulders. "It's no matter, I suppose. You will fight for me regardless. I was too surprised at the parade to do this then, but now... now your fellow SeeD will perish on your blade, child!"

Cool blue energy leapt from her fingers and arched towards Seifer. He tried to evade it, casting Shell in hopes that the magic would simply rebound uselessly even if it could track him. Whatever the magic was, however, it cut through his shield and slammed into him like mack-truck. Instantly, Seifer dropped to his knees, Hyperion slipping from his fingers as he brought both of his hands up to cover his ears.

Little whispers he'd long forgotten shouted in his head, begging him to be her Knight, to fight and protect her... this was his dream, wasn't it? He'd always wanted to be a Sorceress' Knight. This was his chance to fulfill his most treasured, romantic dream... all that stood in his way was...

"Seifer!" Squall's shout cut through the whispers and jarred Seifer out of the strange, trance-like state she'd tried to put him in.

"Get out of my head!" Seifer snarled, grabbing Hyperion and stumbling to his feet. The whispers were still there, but he ignored them in favor of rushing the Sorceress. "I'll never be your Knight!" Hyperion lanced up in a move that should have cleaved through her unprotected chest.

Edea's long fingernails flicked negligently against his chest, sending Seifer sailing into the far wall. He crashed painfully against the wall and crumpled to the ground. The world flickered around him and he watched, unable to move, as Squall attacked, putting a cut across the Sorceress' right arm. Selphie managed to thwack her several times in the leg's and abdomen with her nunchaku. Irvine wore down her Protect shields time and again with his gun while Zell would dart in for a few attacks, but mainly acted as their magic support.

Then _it_ happened.

Squall managed another hit on the Sorceress, this time scraping his gunblade across her chest. The Sorceress screamed in pain, a noxious looking white gas streaming out of her mouth.

As Edea toppled to the floor, the world whited out.

A/N – I have a few parting notes for everyone. First of all, Cid has some explaining to do. ^_~ Second, Rinoa's not in the room with the Sorceress... think about what that could mean. Third, Kit and I are reevaluating our timeline and have added a few more chapters to our initial estimate. Woo-hoo!


	16. Chapter 14

Disclaimer – I don't own _FFVIII_, because this is how things would have gone in the game if I did.

A/N – Well, I've got some good news. Kit is in the process of being accepted for an internship! Woo-hoo! She'll get to start sometime next week. Yay!

Also, I've spent the past few days planning my little sister's b-day party; she turned sixteen today. There were balloons, cake, ice cream, video games, and a crazy older sister (aka. Me ^_^ ) with a helium-voice. Then, near the end of the party, she comes over and basically says "I had an awesome time, sis... so is this why you didn't update yesterday?" My reaction was to pause, stare, and then... "whoops?" Yeah... thanks everyone for being patient. The chapter was late for a good cause.

_Chapter Fourteen_

It took Seifer a few seconds to realize that even though the world had turned a blindingly bright shade of white, he was still awake. He struggled to find his footing and managed to stand, leaning against the wall while he took slow, painful breaths. Already the haze was clearing from his sight; he could make out the figures of Squall, Irvine, Zell, and Edea lying on the floor and a small, orange-yellow blob, who could only be Selphie, standing in the auditorium doorway.

"Selphie!" Seifer took an uncertain step towards her. "Selph, what are you doing?"

"You failed me."

Seifer froze at the sound of the voice that emerged from his little sister's lips. Ultimecia's voice... from Selphie's mouth. It was a nightmare; it had to be a nightmare. "Let her go!" Seifer's sight was growing stronger and he cast his gaze about, trying to locate Hyperion in case Ultimecia attacked. He wouldn't offensively fight Ultimecia – not while her mind wore Selphie's body – but he had no problem defending himself from her.

"You are one of the Liberi Fatali. I chose you to abandon the rest, to join with me... for you are said to be the strongest, the defeater of Odin..." Selphie's body swayed almost drunkenly as she broke off.

"Who are you?" Seifer demanded, taking a few steps to the left in order to get closer to Hyperion.

"My name..." Selphie shook her head. "You can call me Ultimecia. Your future is my past and present."

Seifer picked up Hyperion and held it tightly, though he didn't bother dropping into a defensive stance. Ultimecia didn't seem to be in the mood to attack him at the moment. "But what's your real name?" the question slipped out without him meaning to ask, but it didn't seem to phase her.

"You are quick, child, but not quick enough. To give my name would be to betray my security. I shall not risk it." Selphie turned away and walked out into the hall.

Around Seifer the others were stirring, just beginning to regain consciousness. He longed to stay there and protect Matron from the disbelief of the others... but he couldn't just let Ultimecia walk off in Selphie's body either. "Aw, screw it," he muttered, hurrying off after the copper haired SeeD.

Following after her, Seifer saw Minion stumble out of the elevator, obviously wounded and likely mere steps ahead of Quistis and the others. She looked a little like a drowned rat – she'd always been far too fond of water-based magic – and was gasping for breath as she dropped to her knees in front of Selphie.

"My Knight," Ultimecia's whispering voice was just on the edge of hearing. "I have a task for you that must be completed to assure our successful defeat of SeeD." She leaned over and murmured the rest into Minion's ear. However, Seifer knew exactly what she was telling Minion.

_Find the Lunatic Pandora and trigger the Lunar Cry._

Minion's complete acceptance of Selphie as her Sorceress, when only minutes earlier she'd been proclaiming loyalty to Edea, seemed strange to Seifer. He remembered the same thing happening to him when Rinoa was possessed by Ultimecia in those brief moments after Squall defeated Edea in the other timeline, but seeing it from the other side was unnerving. Ultimecia's control over Minion's mind explained how Minion could be unquestioning regarding her Sorceress' apparent body-swap, yet Seifer was loathe to admit that Ultimecia's power could negate Minion's awareness of others so completely.

He didn't like realizing that it had been the same way for himself.

Drawing back from Minion, Selphie stiffened and then collapsed, her body growing unresponsive. Minion straightened her back and got to her feet, seemingly in possession of a new wave of strength. She stepped over Selphie's prone body, intent on escaping the Garden before representatives from Balamb secured the facility. Seifer, of course, had no intention of letting Minion get away.

Within moments, Seifer had moved to stand between Minion and the stairs to the lower level, Hyperion poised at her throat. "If you even think about starting to cast, Cadell..." Seifer warned, leaving his threat open ended. She could certainly get the idea for herself easily enough.

"Seifer?" Squall's voice filtered through to him from the auditorium's doorway. "Where's Selphie?"

"She's over by the elevator," Seifer told him, keeping his gaze on Minion. "I think she's unconscious."

"I'll get free eventually," Minion told Seifer calmly. Compared to the giggling, giddy creature she'd been upstairs, her sudden, unnaturally placid facade was truly eerie to behold.

"Selphie! Selphie, wake up!" Irvine's distraught voice sent a pang of guilt through Seifer. He hadn't meant for Selphie to be hurt by all the changes he was causing...

* * *

"I have been poked, prodded, subjected to numerous magical scans, and viciously attacked with far too many needles," Seifer declared, having finally had enough. "Enough's enough, Doc. The worst thing you found wrong with me was a concussion and you've already healed that."

"You were nearly possessed by the Sorceress; if I could just find out how you managed to throw off her control then I might learn how to help that friend of yours you've stowed away in the detention cells." Kadowaki looked away unhappily, her arms crossing over her chest.

"You must really hate not being able to help someone," Seifer observed quietly. "Right now, Doc, I need to talk to Minion. Even if most of what she says is off-the-wall craziness, she'll more than likely still tell me something of value. Will you clear me?" It was getting really warm in the infirmary, so Seifer pulled off his coat as he spoke, folding it over his arm.

"The air conditioner won't turn off." Kadowaki's eyes narrowed and she darted forward, placing her hand on Seifer's forehead. He jerked away in surprise. "Hmmm... you ought to be freezing like the rest of us, but instead you feel hot."

"I'm sorry, Doc, but no matter how hot you may find me, I've already got a boyfriend." Seifer grinned impishly, hoping the joke wouldn't fall flat.

Dr. Kadowaki laughed, putting Seifer at ease. "Oh, alright. If you feel well enough to use that perverted sense of humor of yours, then I might as well release you from my clutches." Shooing Seifer back out into the waiting area, she looked between Squall, Fujin, and Raijin. "Fujin, follow this idiot brother of yours around for a while. You know him best, so if he starts acting wildly out of character then knock him unconscious and drag him back here. That's the only likely side effect of whatever the Sorceress tried to do to him I can think of. Beyond that... I have other patients to look in on." She strolled off, leaving them all behind.

"Ya know... I think she's the only member of the staff who has always recognized the whole 'adopting each other as siblings' thing," Raijin said, breaking the silence.

Fujin nodded. "AFFIRMATIVE. She's my favorite for a reason."

"So you're okay?" Squall asked, standing and crossing the distance between them within a matter of seconds.

"I'm fine," Seifer assured him, running his hand lightly down Squall's arm. "So, does anyone know how Minion's doing?"

"Oh, that Emrys chick sent a message up here about ten minutes ago, ya know?" Rai sent Seifer a lopsided grin. "She said that Min was driving everybody in the detention center up a wall 'cause she's been singing the song that never ends. Emrys was ranting about brainwashing by children's shows and... she's really strange, ya know?"

"Yeah... that she is," Seifer agreed, thinking to himself that there were far too many strange women in his life considering that he was dating a _man_. "How about Selphie? Has she woken up yet?"

"No." Squall shook his head and sighed, glancing over in the direction of Selphie's room. "Irvine won't leave her side."

"He loves her," Seifer observed softly. "Give me a minute, okay?" Without waiting for a response, Seifer walked into Selphie's room.

Seifer gave Irvine a few moments of quiet before saying, "she's going to wake up."

"Yeah... but will she be herself or will she be possessed like Matron was?" Irvine asked hoarsely. "We don't even know what happened to her. I mean... you didn't see, did you?"

"Unfortunately, no. Everything whited out, but I must have been far enough away not to get knocked out. By the time I could see what was going on, she was on her way out of the room and wasn't much for being distracted." Seifer shrugged. "I tried talking to her, but the only thing worthwhile out of what the Sorceress was saying through was something about the Liberi Fatali."

"What does that mean?"

"It's Ancient Centran... but I think it means 'fated children' or something to that effect." Seifer paused and put a hand on his shoulder, squeezing lightly before walking over to stand in front of Selphie. "I'm going to go talk with Minion and see if I can get anything useful out of her; she used the name Ultimecia for herself, but there's no way it's her real one." He paused a beat. "Are you staying here?"

"I... I want to be here, in case she wakes up."

Turning to leave, Seifer paused, not wanting to leave the cowboy there moping. "She loves you, Kinneas," Seifer told him. "She hasn't quite figured it out yet, but she's almost there."

"W-what?"

"That's how I know she's going to wake up. Selphie isn't the sort to leave something halfway done." Seifer grinned at Irvine and then left the room.

"So, how's he doing?" Squall asked.

"He'll be fine... as soon as Selphie wakes up." Seifer shrugged. "Until then, he just needs to figure out how to pull himself together." Looking over his shoulder at the way Irvine sat there with Selphie's hand clasped in his own, Seifer added, "it might take a while."

* * *

"It goes on and on my friend! Some people started singing it, not knowing what it was, but they'll continue singing it forever just because this is the song that never ends!"

"I guess Emrys wasn't kidding," Seifer observed as Minion's off-key singing reached his ears.

"It goes on and on my friend!"

"She is singing the song that never ends," Fujin grumbled, wincing as Minion's voice hit the notes a little too sharply.

"Some people started singing it, not knowing what it was..."

"Oh, boss-man, you're here!" Emrys raced over, shooting a glare over at the dark haired woman in the cell as she rushed by. "I'm going on dinner break; she's your problem now. I've been driven beyond my threshold for stupidity thanks to this song."

"But they'll continue singing it forever just because..."

Emrys twitched as Minion's volume went up a little. "So if you hear that I've locked myself in the other set of detention cells on the other side of the hallway... it'll be because someone did something stupid in the cafeteria, I shot them for it, and then arrested myself. Have fun." She smiled a rather manically and then raced from the room. "FREEDOM!" could be heard as the door shut.

"Minion, I really hope you haven't succeeded in breaking the only helpful person on my security staff," Seifer observed, moving to stand in front of the bars. "Also, if you don't shut up I'll get Raijin to sing the song that gets on everybody's nerves."

Minion's mouth shut with an audible click.

"So... how have you been?" Seifer snagged one of the desk chairs and dragged it over, smirking as the legs screeched loud enough to make Minion flinch violently. He twisted the chair around and sat down on it backwards, crossing his arms over the top of the chair's back. "Come now, Minion, it can't be that complicated a question."

"I've been good," Minion told him. "Becoming the right hand of the most powerful woman in all of time... is a heady experience."

"Sure it is..." Seifer frowned. How did he go about this, anyway? Cadets were taught to interrogate enemies... but not brainwashed friends. "So, she is from the future after all. I'd been wondering about that."

Minion perceptibly stiffened. "What makes you think she's from the future?"

"_In all of time_, Minion... really?" Seifer shook his head in feigned amusement. "You've never been good at choosing your words carefully."

"Jerk."

"Well, yeah, it's me. That's kind of a given." He laughed as she glowered at him. "The Sorceress... the name she gave you to use for her is Ultimecia, right?" Seeing Minion's jerky nod, Seifer relaxed a little. She was answering, after a fashion, which seemed like a good sign. "After she possessed Selphie, she used that name when I asked who she really was."

"So you're just testing out what you already know against me in order to receive confirmation?" Minion scowled and crossed her arms. She was seated on the cot in the cell, her legs folded beneath her, and she seemed comfortable enough. "Well, I'm not going to answer anything further. You'll just have to assume things and make an ass of yourself from here on out."

"Minion..." Seifer frowned at her and tried to think of a new line of attack. "You're already dead as far as she's concerned, you know. We all are. We're nothing to her. The SeeD in the future; they're her enemies. This whole thing is about destroying her enemies before they can ever be created." Seifer watched her reactions, resisting the urge to tug at the collar of his shirt. Kadowaki hadn't been kidding about him being feverish and he was starting to feel worse. "She's using you, like this is some sort of game of chess. Except you aren't a castle or a bishop; hell, you aren't even a knight."

"Shut up."

"You're a pawn, Minion. You're just a low-level backup plan for one of her gambits that got screwed up; and lets face it Minion, the only pawns of hers that get to move up a level are the ones whom she possesses with her mind, not just her magic."

"Shut up!" Minion leapt up from the cot and practically flew across the cell in order to wrap her hands around the bars. "She isn't using me. I'm her Knight!" Her breathing was rapid – too rapid. "I'm her Knight!" she repeated with less confidence and more hatred. "I'm... I'm her Knight..." eyes growing unfocused, Minion collapsed to the ground. Her body shuddered and then went still, eyes fluttering shut as she breathed shallowly.

"Get Doctor Kadowaki," Seifer commanded, not caring who obeyed as long as the Doc got down there as fast as humanly possible. He got out of his seat and unlocked the cell, crouching beside Minion's prone form. He gave her a cursory check over, but all Seifer could really tell was that she had a fever far worse than his own. "Dammit, she's burning up," he hissed softly.

"We should try to cool her down while we wait for Kadowaki," Squall said, speaking up for the first time since they'd arrived in the detention center. He knelt beside Seifer and Minion, frowning more deeply in concern. "You're not looking so good either. Are you sure Kadowaki should have cleared you?"

"I'm not sick," Seifer insisted, leaning his forehead against Squall's shoulder for a moment, relishing the feeling of Squall's fingers running through his hair soothingly. He wanted to just stay there, but so much needed doing...

"I almost lost you today," Squall whispered. "I don't even understand what she was doing to you, but I know she nearly stole you away from me."

"I could hear this whispering in my head, almost like my own thoughts. I couldn't think; it was too cluttered in my mind and then... I heard you say my name," Seifer shrugged. "After that, I just knew that I had to fight back regardless of whatever I was hearing. She had to be stopped."

Picking up Minion, Seifer stood and placed her on the cot in the cell. He turned to Squall and led him out of the cell, well aware that Fuu and Rai were watching them curiously. Fujin had some paper towels in hand and she walked past him; there was a sink in the cell that she used to get the towels wet and then placed one over Minion's forehead and another on her neck.

"This should cool her down a little," Fuu explained, giving Seifer a long look. "Go sit down. You aren't looking so great."

Seifer scowled and crossed his arms. He was acting petulant, but he didn't care. Really, he was feeling tired and a little out of it. Though he wanted nothing more than to go to bed with Squall and just sleep, there was just too much that needed to be done.

They still needed to talk to the Kramers. Seifer was not looking forward to that conversation, especially since he had no intention of sparing Cid the questions he had for him. Not even for Edea's sake.

"Where's my patient?" Doctor Kadowaki asked, walking briskly into the room.

Seifer blinked at her and then gestured to the open cell. "Minion's in there. She just sort of... collapsed." He couldn't help but wonder how long he must have been just standing there lost in thought without realizing it. Maybe he really should lay down a while...

"Seifer?"

Starting in surprise, he realized Squall had been talking to him. "Uh..."

"I've gotten a few of your security guards to take over watching Minion," Squall repeated softly. "Let's get you home before Kadowaki decides you should stay the night in the infirmary."

* * *

Seifer had enough presence of mind to strip down to his boxers before falling into bed with Squall, who lay there running his fingers through Seifer's hair while the blonde drifted off to sleep. He woke the next morning feeling completely refreshed, however, and far too content to just lay there watching Squall sleep.

Slowly, Squall woke up, his blue eyes blinking a few times before he caught sight of the fact that Seifer was already up. He leaned over and pulled Seifer into a chaste kiss, mumbling 'morning' against Seifer's lips before pulling back and, seeming a little more awake, pressing his hand against Seifer's forehead.

"Whatever was wrong with me last night seems better now," Seifer said.

Nodding in agreement, Squall sat up. "Your fever is gone." He stretched, cat-like, and Seifer watched with a satisfied sort of smirk on his face before reaching out and trailing his fingers over Squall's stomach. Squall's breath caught and he seemed almost to purr in pleasure.

There was a knocking at the door and both grumbled in protest.

Getting off the bed, Squall grabbed his robe from the closet and pulled it on as he stalked over to the door. After cinching it around his waist, he opened the door and scowled at Zell, who was standing out in the hall. "What is it?"

"Uh... we just got a message from Matron and Cid at Orphanage... they'd like to see us." Zell glanced over Squall's shoulder and winced at the sight of Seifer, who just smirked and waved.

Forty-eight minutes later, the majority of their group was gathered outside the orphanage. Selphie, of course, was still in the infirmary, but Irvine had reluctantly agreed to come with them. Quistis was hovering at the door, not quite able to bring herself to open the door to the broken down building that had once been their home. Zell was the one who finally pushed Quistis out of the way, though he wasn't unkind about it, and pulled the door open... and then jumped out of the way when the damn thing fell of its hinges.

"You know, if that's indicative of how the day is gonna go, maybe we should just head back to Garden," Irvine grumbled.

"You're here!" Kramer's voice called from inside, sounding more resigned than excited.

"It's a bit late for that," Seifer told the cowboy. "Let's just get this over with."

They all trooped inside. Matron wasn't anywhere to be seen, but Kramer stood in front of the doorway to the back area where the beach and lighthouse were. Being inside the house after so long really brought things back to Seifer. His room had been shared with Squall, Irvine, and Zell; it'd been the first off of the hall on the right. Quistis and Selphie had been across the hall with Ellone...

"Many thanks for your hard work," Kramer said, disrupting Seifer's train of thought. The old man laughed, but he didn't really sound amused. "Are you angry with me? Haha... I don't blame you. All I do is talk big, but in times of trouble, I run away. I was in a no-win situation. Your defeat would be the end of you. Your victory would mean losing my wife. I just couldn't bear... to face either outcome. I don't care about myself... but... please forgive Edea..." Not waiting for a response, Kramer hurried out of the house.

"That's just great," Seifer observed. "More excuses and no explanations. Lovely."

"At least he admitted that he sucks," Irvine replied.

"We should follow him," Squall interrupted. "We still haven't spoken to Matron." He waited for the rest of them to nod in agreement and then they trooped outside after Kramer. He was standing beside Matron, holding her hand in his for support. It was unclear, however, just which one of them was in need of that support.

"My children... please forgive me... I raised you as my own, yet still, I..." Edea looked away mournfully, unable to hold their gazes.

"Matron..." Squall sighed and crossed his arms. "We feel the same way."

"We fought, knowing very well that you were out Matron. That was the only choice we had left," Quistis elaborated.

"You are SeeDs," Edea responded. "You are everything I'd hoped you become; capable warriors who won't back out of necessary battles. You are all so magnificent. Yet events have not come to a close. Our enemy could still... I was possessed all this time and it might happen again at any moment. So long as I am a Sorceress, I am a danger to you." She paused and took a better look at them all. "Where is Selphie?"

"She's comatose in Garden's infirmary," Irvine responded a tad brokenly. "She passed out after the battle at Galbadia Garden and hasn't woken yet. Doctor Kadowaki doesn't know when she'll wake."

"I'm sorry... I'm so sorry..."

"Matron... this isn't your fault," Seifer finally spoke up, deciding it was time to start angling them in the direction of a few answers. "It's the Sorceress from the future's fault, right? Ultimecia? Tell us what you know about her."

"She comes from a time many generations ahead of out time. Her objective is to capture Ellone, whose power is the key to Ultimecia's victory. I don't know what Ultimecia's ultimate goal is, but..." Edea's voice shook. "I could not allow her to take Ellone. I let her take me instead, losing control of my mind and body as she possessed me.

"That was the only way I knew of to save Ellone. The end result of my actions..." she gestured to the broken down orphanage. "I suppose that is quite obvious." _Destruction_...

"Actually, we already know that part," Seifer spoke up. "She's the one we fought in Deling and she's the one who has brainwashed Minion with magic."

"Minion?"

"She's a blue witch... a friend of mine," Seifer shrugged. "If you don't know Ultimecia's overall goal, do you at least know what she might be planning as her next step? She used Selphie to tell Minion something before we captured Minion after the battle. Unfortunately, Minion isn't feeling particularly cooperative so anything you can tell us about what we'll be dealing with next would be invaluable." _In other words, please stop veering off topic._

"Of course," Edea nodded. "Have you all heard of Sorceress Adel before? She was the ruler of Esthar during the Sorceress War. No one knows of her whereabouts... That's what I learned. The Galbadians must have thought I was the sorceress who received Sorceress Adel's powers. However, that is not the case. I received the powers of the previous sorceress at the age of 5."

Zell looked confused as he asked, "huh? Meaning?"

"She thinks that Sorceress Adel is still alive somewhere," Squall commented absently.

"That is correct." Edea smiled at him beatifically. "I also believe that Ultimecia released my body because she intends to use the body of Sorceress Adel instead. Adel was the type of person who would not hesitate to use her powers out of selfishness. Should Ultimecia bequeath her anger and hatred unto Adel, their combined power would be unimaginable."

"Matron, do you know how to help Selphie?" Irvine asked, no longer able to wait for his question to be answered.

"Please forgive me, Irvine... I do not know how to help Selphie."

Irvine looked away for a long moment, pain written on his face as his hands clenched. "It's okay, Matron." He looked up at her, appearing so much older than the carefree sharpshooter he'd been just weeks earlier. "You aren't the one who did this to her."

"What exactly is Ellone's power, anyway?" Zell asked. "We know she's been using it to send our minds to the past, but how does she do that?"

"Ellone is able to send the consciousnesses of people she knows and cares for into the past; the minds she sends them to must also be people she knows and cares for," Edea explained. "She is unable to send her own mind into the past, but under duress she might be able to use her power on minds that she does not possess an emotional connection to. She is not a Sorceress nor a blue witch; science has not yet progressed far enough to understand what Ellone truly is."

"So, Ultimecia wants to use Ellone's power, right?" Zell looked pensive as things started to click together in his head.

Irvine tilted his head to the side as he added, "I get it. Ultimecia wants to send her consciousness from this period further into the past by forcing Ellone to use her powers. But what could Ultimecia possibly do in the past that she can't achieve here?"

"I cannot know for certain, but I suspect... that she intends to enact Time Compression." Edea paused and then elaborated. "It's a theoretical type of temporal magic. If a Sorceress were to cast a specific spell at three different points in time, yet still simultaneously, then all of time – past, present, future – would be compressed into a single instant. The Sorceress responsible would then be able to control time itself as she pleased."

"Sounds like a fairy tale," Seifer shook his head. "What could she possibly hope to gain from all that power? It's not like she'd really be able to enjoy any of it."

"What do you mean?" Zell looked bewildered again.

"Ever heard of the saying 'it's lonely at the top?' If Ultimecia succeeds in her goals, she'll still be a lonely, miserable, bitter woman. It's not gonna change anything for her." Seifer shrugged. "It's more like she's doing this because history says that a Sorceress called Ultimecia attempted it, than because she has any worthwhile goal."

"Who knows," Squall said. "Basically, all we need to do right now is prevent Ultimecia from getting a hold of Ellone. We can figure out the rest, such as what to do about Sorceress Adel, later."

"I suppose," Edea agreed uncertainly.

"Good." Squall took a seat on a nearby, broken down wall that had once enclosed Matron's garden. "Yesterday, when we fought Ultimecia, she attempted to do to Seifer what she's already done to Minion. She mentioned meeting him in the past and someone who must have made Seifer forget. We need to know about that too."

Kramer cringed and Seifer narrowed his eyes as he stared at him. "Something you want to mention, Kramer?" Seifer asked sharply.

The ex-headmaster winced again. "I, uh... I might know something about that."

Squall gave Kramer a long look. "Why does not surprise me?" he finally asked. "You should consider elaborating," Squall continued in a darker tone.

Seifer's heart thudded a bit at the tone of Squall's voice. It might be a little irrational, but he rather liked this protective side Squall was showing all of a sudden.

"Several months ago... after the incident with McCormick..." Kramer looked away as Edea sent him a curious look. "Seifer, you requested that you be allowed to see Edea. After how things played out, I couldn't exactly deny that request. Her behavior had already become erratic at the time, but I thought that in Garden you would be safe enough. I was wrong.

"I left the two of you alone in my office for a few minutes to complete a few errands and when I returned, Ultimecia was using some sort of magic on you through Edea. I was able to kick her out before she could finish anything – her hold on Edea was still weak enough at the time that she didn't dare risk it – but you were... not quite yourself. I ordered you to spend the following week junctioned to Alexander, who had instructions to remove only your most recent memories of Edea... I thought it was for the best that you forgot, so that she could not use you. I hoped that in forgetting, her hold on you would be negated."

Kramer smiled hopefully. "It seems I was right."

"If anything, you put him even more at risk!" Edea exclaimed, looking upset. "Without knowing what to look out for, you might very well have wound up driving one of my children straight into her arms!" She reached out, briefly touching Seifer's shoulder before pulling away sadly. "Your sense of self – your strength of will – has to be strong indeed to ignore the siren's song of a Sorceress calling for your obedience."

"Or maybe there was someone else whose voice was louder," Irvine teased, perking up a little as a chance to pester Seifer and Squall opened up in front of him.

"Oh?" Edea looked intrigued. "What do you mean, Irvine?"

"Just that," he glanced pointedly at Squall, "Seifer has a slight habit of ignoring other people in favor of paying attention to Squall."

Maybe it was Irvine's teasing or Edea's anger towards her husband or Squall's protective glowering at their ex-headmaster, but Seifer just couldn't bring himself to get angry at Cid Kramer. He just didn't care anymore.

Quistis snickered in amusement. "Just like Squall tends to tune everyone except Seifer out..." she shook her head. "The Sorceress never stood a chance."

It was scary just how wrong Quistis was at that moment. Ultimecia could have had him easily... too easily. "No... if I hadn't made SeeD, I'd have been likely driven straight to her and no one would have been the wiser. No one would have known something was wrong, except maybe Fuu and Rai. But what would they have been able to do about it? They'd have been stuck watching me fall apart under her control, with no one listening to them about what she was doing." It was what had happened to him in the other timeline. It was what his friends were put through. Kramer had to understand what he'd done was wrong, if nothing else got through to him.

"Huh... I wonder..." Zell spoke up and then trailed off, thinking to himself.

"Zell, what is it?" Squall asked, looking curious in spite of his anger towards Kramer.

"Well, what if you could remember that meeting with Ultimecia, Seifer? She tried to recruit you and failed, so you're the only one who knows what her sales pitch is. Well, aside from Minion, but she isn't inclined to be helpful right now. Anyway, finding out her methods of recruitment might give us better insight into what she wants and why. Uh... but I don't really know what might help you remember." Zell shrugged. "Just an idea..."

"And not a bad one at all," Seifer found himself agreeing. "Even if she didn't say anything of importance to me, I still want to know what happened. I don't exactly appreciate people taking the liberty of screwing with my memories," he added, giving Kramer a pointed look.

"I would like to travel with Balamb Garden for a time," Edea said after a long silence in which Kramer didn't really respond to anything that had been said. "Esthar knows the most about Sorceresses; if I were to travel there, they might have a method of limiting, or completely sealing, my powers away. To prevent Ultimecia from using me again, I must chance it."

Squall nodded. "Very well."

"Before you come aboard," Seifer interrupted, "we'll need some time to ensure the proper measures are taken to ensure your safety. Our people were fighting against you yesterday and not everyone is going to simply accept our word that you aren't the real enemy in all of this. If you're going to be traveling with us, it's my job to keep you safe, Matron."

She smiled and nodded. "Let me know as soon as things are ready for me." Seifer nodded and the SeeDs started walking through the orphanage back towards Garden.

"Do you really think Matron will be in danger from Balamb SeeDs?" Squall asked quietly.

"Considering the way Garden was split over loyalty to Kramer and NORG not that long ago..." Seifer shrugged. "I'd rather not take the chance." He paused and then asked, equally quiet, "once we're up in the air again, want to spar?" After the way their morning had already gone, he desperately wanted to fall back into the familiar routine of a planned fight.

Nodding, Squall opened his mouth to respond. But just as he was about to speak, he frowned, bringing a hand up to his head. "I..." he trailed off, stumbling.

"Not this again," Zell complained collapsing unconscious to the ground.

"What the...?" Irvine hit the ground just seconds after Zell.

"It's Ellone," Squall said, his eyes rolling back in his head as he, too, passed out.

Seifer caught Squall before he could hit the ground and cradled the brunet in his arms. Looking up in concern at Quistis, he tightened his hold on Squall. "I'm starting to get really pissed off at Ellone."

A/N - I'm still so excited for Kit. She's got an internship! I toast her success with a virtual mango margarita and good wishes so that she might continue to do well in maintaining her internship.


	17. Chapter 15

Disclaimer – I don't own _FFVIII_, because this is how things would have gone in the game if I did.

A/N – So, this chapter is gonna have some yummy, delicious smut. :) There's a reason I jacked the rating up to M, after all. Also, due to technical difficulties with Tuesdays, I'm moving update-day to Wednesdays.

_Chapter 15_

Seifer was shuffling through the papers he'd fetched from his office some hours earlier when Squall woke up. He'd just about finished figuring out how to maintain two protection details – one for Minion who was still unconscious and feverish in one of Kadowaki's sick rooms and one for Matron – and was just putting the finishing touches on his plans (which included hijacking the DC and having them temporarily take over some of security's patrol areas) when he noticed a set of blue-gray eyes watching him curiously.

"Good morning sunshine," Seifer drawled, smirking as Squall scowled faintly. "So, what sort of idiocy did Ellone make you put up with this time?"

"He was fighting a dragon with only Kiros for backup. I don't even want to know what Ward was up to, but it was probably less ridiculous." Squall shuddered, sitting up and looking around. "I thought I'd wake up in the infirmary, not my room."

"Yeah, well," Seifer shrugged. "Kadowaki has Kinneas and Dincht as her lab rats; I convinced her to let me take you home."

"Good. I hate waking up in the infirmary." Squall slid his legs over the side of the bed, shoving the covers aside. "What are you working on?"

Seifer handed over the papers. "My plans for Edea's protection detail. I really need more security officers. As it stands, I'm gonna have to call on the DC to cover some of the perimeter patrols; fortunately we'll need fewer of those once we're up in the air again."

"So... Matron will be able to join us soon?"

"Yeah, I just need to put the finishing touches on my plans, let my officers know what the new schedule is like, and she can come aboard." Seifer shrugged, holding his hand out for the papers. Instead of giving them back, however, Squall set them on the bedside table. "Squall?"

"Yesterday, Minion got sick right around the time that your fever spiked."

"Yeah...?"

"I don't think that's a coincidence." Squall paused a moment and then continued to explain his speculation. "She was being controlled by the Sorceress and now she's unconscious in the infirmary with flu-like symptoms. You were almost controlled by the Sorceress and you were feverish and out of it. Do you think... it's connected somehow?"

Seifer stared at Squall for a long moment, his thoughts racing. "I think you're right," he agreed slowly. "Around a month ago I had the flu... or Kadowaki thought it was the flu. I had... a really weird dream and woke up sick. Afterwards, I felt like I'd finally woken from some fog I'd been walking around in without realizing it."

"Maybe it's some sort of response to fighting off the Sorceress' control?" Squall shrugged. "Obviously magic isn't something the immune system can really fight off, but people do build up resistance to magic anyway."

"Like maybe it's a physical response to mentally fighting off the Sorceress' magic?" Seifer filled in. It was certainly possible. Though he couldn't recall anything like that happening in the other timeline. But then, he'd never tried to fight of the Sorceress' control there. It wasn't until the metaphorical reset button got hit that he'd made a conscious decision to work against Ultimecia.

However, Minion hadn't made that choice yet, had she? She was still proclaiming her support of the Sorceress... albeit in a less than convincing manner. Maybe her decision was subconscious – mistrust fostered in the Sorceress because of her now buried trust in Seifer. It wasn't impossible...

"Maybe. It's worth taking into consideration," Squall shrugged. Leaning over, he pulled Seifer into a lingering kiss. "How long can we put off making those security changes?" he asked huskily.

"As long as we want to," Seifer responded, sliding his fingers beneath the hem of Squall's shirt and yanking it up, over the brunet's head, tossing it somewhere off to the side as he pressed Squall back onto the bed. He kissed his way along Squall's jaw, moaning as long, slender fingers undid the buttons of his shirt and brushed across his chest. "Nnnn..."

Sitting up long enough to discard his own shirt, Seifer groaned as Squall's hands wandered further south. "Seifer..." Squall's fingers fumbled with the button on Seifer's jeans. The brunet's hips jerked as Seifer sucked and bit his neck, determinedly creating a hickey there. "S-Seifer..."

Seifer gasped, his body tensing up for a moment as Squall slipped a hand into his pants, fondling Seifer's hardening arousal through his boxers. "Ahhh..." his eyes shut and his forehead dropped to touch Squall's as he bucked against Squall's hand. Moments later, Squall flipped them over and made his way down Seifer's body, his hands and mouth slowly teasing Seifer's suddenly sensitive skin with a trail of kisses and caresses that were driving Seifer crazy.

Latching onto one of Seifer's nipples, Squall started teasing the nub with his tongue and nipping lightly. Seifer growled low in his throat, one hand twisting itself into Squall's hair while the other tightened on the teen's shoulder. He yelped, his body thrashing widly, when Squall's mouth moved slightly northward and he bit, leaving behind a mark of his own. "F-fuck..." Seifer's hand abandoned Squall's hair so that he could prop himself up and watch as Squall moved on to the nipple he'd been neglecting.

Wide green eyes watched the brunet's mouth with rapt attention, a litany of half-formed curses stumbling from his mouth as Squall pushed down Seifer's pants with one hand and continued to fondle Seifer's erection through his boxers with the other. Desperately, Seifer kicked his pants off and opened up his legs, offering easier access for whatever Squall seemed to have planed. In what seemed like at first an unfortunate twist, Squall sat up and stared down at Seifer's body, simply taking in the sight of him.

Seifer lay back under the intensity of Squall's stare, his eyes locked on Squall's, which had turned into cerulean slivers surrounding wide, dark pupils. Squall licked his lips slowly and then he scooted back and brought his face down in order to mouth Seifer through the boxers.

Eyes squeezing shut and hands scrabbling for purchase in the sheets, Seifer's hips tried, once more, to buck. Only this time Squall's hands got in the way, firmly holding down the blonde's hips as the brunet hummed in amusement. "Oh... unh..." he let out a strangled sound as Squall started to suck through the material. "F...fuck..."

Then, just as suddenly as Squall had started sucking him, the brunet's mouth lifted away. All Seifer could manage to do was whimper at the loss. His boxers were eased away slowly, Squall's mouth leaving a trail of lingering kisses down Seifer's thighs while staying away from Seifer's leaking cock.

"Squall..." Seifer's voice didn't seem to want to obey as he opened his eyes and looked down. His eyes met Squall's and they froze for an instant, each caught up in what they saw in the other's eyes. Seconds later, Seifer's hands tightened in the sheets as he watched Squall take his length into his mouth bit by bit. The warm heat that was slowly – excruciatingly slowly – engulfing Seifer was driving him towards the edge.

"Ahh... Hyne..." Seifer hissed as Squall started sucking, his tongue doing things that left Seifer writhing and moaning. "Squall... I... I'm gonna..." he tried to warn, but Squall just hummed and sucked harder.

"Squall!"

Panting sharply for breath, Seifer needed a few moments to register Squall hovering over him. He pulled the brunet down into a searing kiss while one of his hands reaching down, quickly unzipping Squall's pants, and slipping beneath the brunet's boxers in order to wrap around Squall's erection. "You are a fast learner," Seifer muttered, pulling Squall closer and crushing their lips together in another kiss. "Fucking unbelievable," he added, moving his mouth towards Squall's ear in order to lick and nip at the sensitive shell.

"Hnnn..." Squall shuddered atop Seifer and groaned. "I'm close..." he moaned, his hands grabbing Seifer's shoulders with vice-like grips. "S-so close..."

Seifer's free hand snaked around to squeeze Squall's ass, earning him a startled whimper and another moan. He let his fingers trail down to Squall's entrance and brushed them lightly there. They hadn't gone so far as penetration yet, but Squall was responding favorably to Seifer's teasing, arching against his touch and making quiet mewling noises that he tried desperately to suppress.

Of course, Seifer was having none of that. He moved his hands to grasp Squall's hip and flipped them over, his lips drifting lower as he explored Squall's body with open mouthed kisses, leaving little marks behind every so often as Squall writhed and moaned, the needy mewling noises growing louder and more distinct the further down Seifer's mouth wandered.

He wrapped his hand around Squall's length again, moving with a maddeningly slow speed, while his mouth strayed even lower. Snagging a pillow away from the head of the bed, Seifer propped up Squall's hips. His free hand went back to teasing Squall's entrance while his tongue snaked out, licking one of Squall's balls before taking it into his mouth and sucking. He gave the same treatment to the other sac and then replaced the hand on Squall's cock with his mouth.

"S-Seifer, I... I..." Squall's body stilled for a moment. Then, with a wordless cry, Squall shuddered hard, his cum filling up Seifer's mouth as the blonde worked hard to swallow as much as he could.

Gently releasing Squall's softened cock, Seifer made his way back up Squall's body and pulled the disoriented brunet into a kiss. Pulling away shortly, Squall curled up against Seifer, his breath coming in short pants that were slowly evening out back towards sleep. Running his fingers lightly through Squall's soft hair, Seifer watched as Squall drifted off. But, before he was completely asleep, Squall mumbled something that took Seifer's breath away.

"Never knew I could need someone so much."

It was like a light had been flipped on and Seifer could see something he'd been overlooking before. He wasn't falling in love with Squall; he was already in love with Squall. He'd known just days before that he was falling for Squall, but to realize it had already happened – that he'd fallen in love, yet his feelings continued to grow – managed to surprise Seifer anyway. Stilling his fingers, Seifer pressed a kiss to the sleeping man's forehead and whispered, "I love you, Squall."

* * *

It was mid-afternoon by the time that Seifer deemed it safe enough for Edea to come aboard Garden. Kramer came with her, but was dragged off by a rather irate looking Xu. It seemed that Garden's new Headmistress was not pleased by all the little things that Kramer had deemed unimportant for her, or anyone else, to know... like who his wife was and that the Sorceress was possessed by yet another Sorceress, who was the true threat to her students.

Xu had rapidly developed a protective streak a mile wide where the cadets were concerned and Seifer almost wished he could be a fly on the wall for the reaming out Kramer was in for. But he had more important things to deal with than the old man.

"So, how's she doing, Doc?" Seifer asked, looking through glass at one of their two 'sleeping beauties.'

"Minion's fever finally broke about an hour before you walked in, but she still hasn't woken up yet. Your officers have very little to do at this point," Kadowaki told him. "I still can't figure out why she's sick, though. Her blood work came back clean; the odds of her having something I can't test for are minimal considering she'd have more symptoms than unconsciousness and fever."

"Uh... actually, Squall had an idea about that and I think he's right. I wasn't doing so well after the battle yesterday either..."

"That's right, you had a fever." She gave him a suspicious look, adding, "maybe you should stay a while and let me give you a quick once over just to be sure you're fine."

"Doc, I am fine. I think you poked and prodded me with enough needles yesterday to last a lifetime." Seifer grinned to take the sting out of his words. "But the point is," he added, getting back to Squall's theory, "that Minion has spent the past several day's having her mind heavily controlled by the Sorceress' magic and now she's sick. Yesterday, the Sorceress tried to pull the same schtick on me and failed, but I was under the weather for a while too."

"So you and Squall think that there's some kind of connection there?" Kadowaki nodded. "It's a logical conclusion. Otherwise it's one hell of a coincidence and, well, I don't believe in coincidences." Kadowaki tapped her fingers lightly against the wall as she leaned against it for a moment. "I have a few colleagues who are better versed than I in the effects of Sorceress magic; I'll place a few calls and see what I can find out. Maybe they'll be able to help Selphie as well."

"Speaking of the crazed nymph, how's she doing?"

Kadowaki snorted in amusement at the nickname, but gestured towards yet another one of the occupied rooms. "As you can see, she's still comatose. The longer it takes for her to wake up, the less likely her awakening becomes. I can't find a cause for her current state, either. Unlike Minion, Selphie is a few degrees colder than normal, but that might not be anything to worry about. Not everybody's normal temperature is 98.6 degrees, after all."

"She just won't wake up." Seifer walked over and stared through the window at the tiny form of Selphie Tilmitt. For someone so small, she maintained such a huge presence that it was unsettling to see her so still. "Did you kick Irvine out?"

"I sent him away to sleep. The poor dear just sits there, holding her hand, updating her on everything that's been going on." Kadowaki smiled sadly. "Young love usually has more mundane complications."

"Yeah..." Seifer trailed off, thinking of his own 'young love' for Squall. He knew it was love now and had even said so to Squall... while the other man was sleeping. Saying it when Squall could hear, though... the very idea was daunting. His mind kept wandering from how he felt now to what was happening around this time in that other lifetime. Squall would have likely begun to truly hate Seifer by this time while keeping vigil at the sleeping Rinoa's side, his confused feelings for her likely tormenting him. Seifer had no qualms in changing that particular scene.

Yet by traveling back in time, Seifer hadn't just changed his own life – he was affecting everyone around him and not necessarily in a positive way. While Rinoa losing out on having Squall to herself was something Seifer could very easily live with, Minion being brainwashed and the suffering Irvine was going through as Selphie 'slept' were...

It wasn't as though he could go and change things back. He wouldn't, selfish as that might be, change things back even if he could. Seifer just hated the idea that people he cared for might come out of things worse for wear than they had before... or that 'worse for wear' might be the greatest understatement he'd ever heard of.

For the first time since coming back in time to fix things, Seifer actually felt guilty about something.

* * *

The White SeeD were back in all their condescending glory. They were appalled to realize that Kramer was no longer in charge and that, instead of dealing with the eccentric 'father figure' they so adored, they had to put up with Xu, Squall, and Seifer. In fact, they weren't going to tell the new leaders of Balamb Garden anything, but Xu had insisted on following them onto their ship and hounding them for the information that was so damn important that they'd tracked down Garden, but was apparently so inconsequential that they couldn't be damned to tell anyone other than Kramer.

For all that Xu was an unromantic busy-body, she was a damn good Headmistress.

"We have come to report that Ellone is no longer with us," the lead White SeeD, the same one Seifer had met the last time, told Xu. The SeeD, Seifer thought the guy's name was Tyrone or something similar, was looking pretty pissed off as he tried to figure out just who he was reporting to.

"What, exactly, is that supposed to mean?" Squall snapped, crossing his arms. "You mean to say you've lost her?"

"We didn't loose her!" Tyrone snarled, causing Seifer to snort softly in amusement. The White SeeD's eyes narrowed as he attempted to glare menacingly at Seifer.

Affecting a bored expression, Seifer asked, "then why don't you try actually explaining things instead of assuming we'll naturally divine the situation without any external input whatsoever."

Xu smirked and quirked an eyebrow, adding, "after all, telling us that Ellone is no longer with you could mean a lot of different things. Since she was able to briefly send three of our SeeDs' minds into the past earlier today, I think it's safe to say that you don't mean she's dead."

Tyrone winced and nodded, finally seeming to understand just how widely his words could be interpreted. "Yesterday we were attacked by two Galbadian warships. They managed to knock out our engines and, just as we thought all was lost, an Estharian ship sailed in, disabled one of the Galbadian ships, and sank the other. Ellone jumped off of our ship onto the Estharian vessel. We then got to work repairing our ship in order to seek out Headmaster Cid for further instructions."

"In other words, you've lost your charge to the Estharians because Ellone is a bit nutty and now you have no idea what you should be doing?" Seifer smirked as Tyrone twitched.

"No, I..."

"Sounds about right to me," Xu interrupted, her smirk having transformed into a too-sweet smile. "I'm sure we can think of something for all of you to do." She stood abruptly, not giving Tyrone time to talk. "I discovered that the White SeeD are considered to be part of Balamb Garden's purview, so we'll do our best to find something fitting for your... black ops training to deal with. If you'll give us a few moments," she waved dismissively towards the door, effectively excusing the man from his own office.

Tyrone stormed out.

"Damn, Xu," Seifer grinned. "And people tell me _I'm_ an ass. I've got nothing on you in full bitch mode."

"Thanks," she responded wryly. "Now... what menial task can we give that jackass that'll really stick it to him?"

"If we could find a way to rework Rinoa's contract, we could finally send her back off to liberate Timber," Squall offered.

Xu nodded slowly. "We'd need a copy of the original contract and Rinoa, but it should be doable." She paused and then turned to Seifer. "Would she go for it?"

"I noticed her friends Zone and Watts aboard, trying to get my attention when we boarded," Seifer told her. "I'm sure that if we can't convince her, they can. I don't know why they're here, but it doesn't really matter at this point."

"Zone... Watts... I assume they're members of the Forest Owls group Rinoa is a part of?" Xu asked, receiving a nod from Squall. "I'll talk with them if the two of you deal with Rinoa. Meet me back here as quickly as possible. I want to get these guys out of our hair and out of the way sooner rather than later."

Seifer nodded and stood up, walking out the door. Xu stopped Squall before he could follow, though, and Seifer could just barely hear Xu say something along the lines of 'feeling the need to get rid of the ex is never a good sign.' There was no audible response from Squall, but Seifer could imagine the glare Xu was getting from the gunblader said more than enough.

He laughed softly as Squall huffed out of the office. "She doesn't know when to quit," he observed in amusement.

"She's a bitch," Squall grumbled, slamming the door behind him.

"I know. She also thinks she's looking out for you... or me... or both of us. I'm not really sure which one." Seifer shrugged. "If she weren't being so Hyne-damned annoying about it..." he trailed off and shrugged again.

"You're awfully... mellow about her attitude," Squall muttered sourly, crossing his arms and looking pretty disgruntled. He looked cute that way, like a kitten that was all puffed up trying to look tough, and Seifer couldn't help but grin.

"That's cause I know something she doesn't."

"What's that?" Squall still sounded surly and put out.

Seifer tilted his head to the side, rather glad that the hallway was cleared. What he intended to say was nerve-wracking enough without an audience. "I love you," he said quietly; his smile was still on his face, but Seifer knew his nerves had to be showing through.

Squall's eyes widened and for a moment he stood there, just staring. Seconds later he snapped out of it, pushing Seifer against the wall and kissing him hard. His hands wandered over Seifer's clothes for a moment before clenching into fists near his shoulder, one hand lightly brushing over the mark he'd left on Seifer's body just hours earlier before reaching it's destinations. A low moan bubbled up out of Seifer's throat, prompting Squall to kiss all that much harder.

Breaking the kiss in order to breathe, Squall pressed his face against Seifer's chest as the blonde let his head thud back against the wall. Seifer slid his arms around Squall's back, his hands coming to rest just above the brunet's far too tempting ass. "Squall?"

Looking up at him with hungry eyes, Squall scowled at him slightly. "When you say that..." he blushed faintly, "if we weren't in the middle of this hallway..." he trailed off again.

Seifer smirked, recalling Squall's reaction to being told Seifer was falling in love with him had been quite similar. "It turns you on to hear me say that," he observed, a wicked look entering his green eyes. Pulling Squall flush against him, Seifer whispered softly in Squall's ear, "I love you."

"Nnn..." the sound Squall made was barely audible, but the way he stiffened and tightened his grip on Seifer's shirt told the taller teen everything he needed to know.

"I love you, Squall," he murmured again, pushing the material of Squall's jacket and shirt off his shoulder and pressing his mouth against the hickey he'd left there.

"Ah-aahh..." this time, the noise was a little louder and Squall ground against Seifer helplessly, seeming to have forgotten just how out in the open they were.

Reluctantly, Seifer took his mouth off the shorter man and put some distance between them, both of them panting for breath and desperate to regain their equilibrium before someone saw them. Unfortunately, it was a bit late for that.

"Fuck..." Xu was standing in the doorway of the office, staring at them with wide eyes.

Squall flushed, equal parts embarrassed and angry, and stalked off down the hall. Seifer just leaned a little more heavily against the wall.

"You know, it isn't polite to stare," Seifer drawled after a long moment.

"You're in love with him?"

"How long were you watching us?" he asked, determined not to answer her questions. He'd told her once before that it was none of her damn business; Xu needed to start actually listening to what he said.

"Long enough," Xu sighed. "Maybe I'm a little envious of the two of you and that's why I'm being so..." she waved her hand awkwardly. "When I first made SeeD, there was a guy who... I thought I loved him. But it ended badly and then he died on a mission. I never had a chance to... I don't know...

"In my experience, first loves don't last. Except, we never said we were in love." Xu paused and then added, "you're a hell of a lot braver than I was, Almasy."

"Go find Zone and Watts; I'm sure the crew will help you track them down," Seifer responded quietly, straightening up and moving away from the wall. "I'll find Squall... and Rinoa and have them come back here, along with a copy of the original contract. If you're lucky, I'll have convinced Squall to calm down."

"Thanks." Xu grinned wryly. "You two look good together..."

"And you can stop right there," Seifer turned to walk off. "I hear enough badly veiled innuendo from the cowboy every time Squall and I so much as sit next to each other. I don't even want to know what _you_ have to say after watching us make out." He was gone before she could quit laughing.

* * *

It took Seifer about five minutes to catch up with Squall and drag him into the nearest empty classroom, locking the door behind them. Squall looked a little pissed, so Seifer said the first thing that came to mind. "I had no idea she opened the door."

"We both knew that she was gonna look for Zone and Watts." Squall seemed to deflate a little, the tension running out of him. "I should have been paying attention. I don't like the idea of someone watching us. You just... distract me."

"Well, I was pretty distracted too." Seifer let out a shaky breath. "Every time you touch me, it's like there's fire beneath my skin... but in a good way, if that makes any sense and doesn't sound too idiotic."

"It makes sense," Squall told him, a small smirk playing on his lips. "Though I'd say it's more corny than idiotic."

"Corny, idiotic... basically the same thing as far as I'm concerned." Seifer scrunched his face up in annoyance. "First you call me mellow, now I'm sounding corny... I'm going soft."

"I'm not sure 'soft' is the word for it," Squall teased, standing in front of Seifer and backing him up against the locked door.

Placing his hands on Squall's shoulders, Seifer roughly reversed their positions and pressed his thigh between Squall's legs. "I'd say that I'm not 'getting harder', except..." he rubbed against Squall and kissed his deeply, his tongue trailing along the sensitive roof of Squall's mouth, eliciting a delicious moan, before pulling away and finishing huskily, "I really am."

"That was a... a terrible pun," Squall gasped, squirming in an attempt to gain a little friction.

"You started it." Seifer pressed his lips against Squall's pulse point, sucking gently.

"Seifer Almasy, this is Jade Emrys. Please respond," chirped from Seifer's coat pocket.

"What is that?" Squall muttered.

"Radio," Seifer answered, fishing the damn thing out of his pocket. "I gave the other one to Emrys; I wanted to know the minute Minion woke up and Emrys is on protection detail for her right now."

"So Minion is likely awake..."

"Yeah... I should answer her."

"Almasy, pick up the damn radio!"

"Yeah, you really should." Squall sounded almost amused.

Seifer backed away from Squall and hit the button on the radio that activated the microphone. "What is it, Emrys?" he snapped.

"Minion is awake... but the good Doctor has ensured she won't sing by way of giant-needle threats. It almost makes me wish I was a doctor."

"You lack the bedside manner for it," Seifer told her bluntly. "Your patients would run away in terror."

"But I'd have fun while they lasted," she chirped happily. "Anyway, you wanted to know when Minion woke up and I've done that. Are you gonna head down to the infirmary to talk to her?"

"I'll be down in a few minutes, Emrys. Try not to let her drive you to the brink of homicide again, okay?" Seifer stifled a groan. He'd rather spend the day with Squall, not dealing with the depressing picture that was the Sorceress Knight Cadell Minion.

"'Kay, boss-man." The radio audibly clicked off on her end, so Seifer turned his own radio off again, dropping it back into the coat pocket.

"Boss-man?" Squall echoed.

"Apparently, if I were a woman she'd call me boss-lady." Seeing the bemused expression on Squall's face, Seifer added, "I asked her about that nickname the first time she used it. Her response was basically 'you're my boss and you're a man; if you were a chick you'd be boss-lady, duh.'"

Squall snickered and trailed his hand slowly down Seifer's arm. "Not that I'm unhappy you came along with me, but why'd you go with Xu and I to the White SeeD ship in the first place? There wasn't exactly a security risk present."

"I suppose part of it was to see if I could annoy those pompous jackasses," Seifer mused, appearing serious for a moment before leering at Squall. "I also like watching you walk. You've got a very nice ass."

That adorable flush appeared on Squall's face again.

"Now, to totally kill the mood," Seifer continued mock cheerfully, "you should go find Rinoa and the original copy of her contract. I have a Sorceress Knight to interrogate... again. Hopefully with more success this time, though I've decided to take a different approach this time."

"You're right. That killed the mood." Squall sighed and unlocked the door.

Before the door could open, however, Seifer grabbed Squall's hand. "I meant what I said earlier, Squall. I love you."

Squall pressed a mostly chaste kiss against Seifer's lips and then opened the door. "I know," he responded as he disappeared into the corridor.

* * *

Seifer let himself into Minion's room, glancing at Emrys and the other security officer on duty – Jenkins –, and settled on the chair beside Minion's bed. "How are you feeling?" he asked, watching her reactions closely.

Minion laughed shakily, her motions jerky as she turned to look at him. "Oh, I'm just peachy... it's not like I haven't been sick for twenty-four hours. I'm still not going to tell you what the Sorceress wants. I won't betray her, no matter what you say about her."

"Guess it's a good thing I don't intend to ask about that right now," Seifer responded. "Do you know why you collapsed yesterday?"

"I... I was sick. I am sick. That's all," she shrugged and slumped against the pillows of the bed, pouting. "If I were out doing what the Sorceress wanted me to do, I'd be fine," she muttered under her breath.

"What makes you say that?"

"You'd make a horrible psychologist, Seifer," Minion responded. "There isn't always a deeper meaning to every mumbled word."

"Sometimes a horse is just a horse, right?" Quistis asked, walking into the room with a smile on her face. "Hi, Minion. I was hoping this time we could be properly introduced. We keep having missteps." She glanced at Seifer for a second before striding forward and holding out her hand for Minion to take.

Vacating his seat, Seifer gestured for Quistis to sit down and then at Emrys to follow him out of the room.

"Please, I think I mentioned this before... call me Cadell." Minion took Quistis' proffered hand, shaking it with a strong grip and placing a kiss on her knuckles before freeing Quistis' fingers.

"Then call me Quistis, won't you?"

The door slid shut behind Seifer and Emrys, cutting off the rest of the conversation inside the room.

"What was that about?" Emrys immediately demanded, looking utterly confused and curious. "Her reactions completely changed when SeeD Trepe walked in."

"Somewhere underneath all of the Sorceress' magical reprogramming is the real Cadell Minion... who has something of a crush on Quistis. So I asked Trepe to come down, talk to Minion, and try to subtly get some info out of her." Seifer saw understanding sink in and Emrys nodded.

"By taking Minion as her Knight, it's kind of like the Sorceress gained a warrior and a hostage all in one tone-deaf package," Emrys observed, obviously still not quite ready to let go of her annoyance over Minion's lack of singing skills.

"That's exactly what she's done," Seifer took a seat on one of the nearby waiting area couches and motioned for Emrys to join him. She settled on one of the chairs across from him and leaned forward slightly, her expression intent. "Is something wrong, sir?"

"Not exactly... what would you say to being second in command of the Security Division?" Seifer watched in amusement as Emrys' expression became the very definition of nonplussed.

"Wh-what?" Emrys shook her head slowly. "You... you've got to be kidding. I don't have the... okay, so you don't have the experience either, so I suppose that's not an issue at this point, but..." She blinked and brought her disbelief under control. "You are serious, aren't you?"

"I don't even want to consider asking Kinneas and I'm sure you can figure out a few reasons as to why that might be." Seifer paused and then added, "regardless of experience, I can't really ask any of the Trabian transfers either. You, however, have been the most assertive and helpful out of the officers who remained on staff when I took over. You're respected by the majority of the division, despite having only joined up five months ago, and you've proven to be one of the few who treated the Security Division as more than a glorified perimeter patrol even before the previous Security Chief got the boot.

"Quite frankly, Emrys, you're my only choice for this position. It means more paperwork, more responsibilities to the division, and longer hours, but it also comes with a shinier paycheck."

"I'm probably going to regret this... but I'll take the position." Emrys waved her hands defeatedly. "I just... you know that I'm Cadet Amy Jackson's cousin... don't you?"

"I know."

"It's kind of ironic, I guess; I doubt anyone could have expected something like this. I joined the Security Division because of what you did for her; because Security did nothing. Now here you are... I can't really pass up a chance to change things, for her sake." She left it there, standing up. "Is there anything else, boss-man?"

"I'll leave the paperwork on your desk to fill out; once that's done and filed, you'll officially be promoted." Seifer stood up as well. "You'll have to tell me how Quistis does later; we've got about a few hours before we reach FH and I've got a few more things to take care of before I leave with the others for Esthar in the morning." Seifer waited for Emrys to return to Minion's room before going to the Security Office and placing the paperwork she needed to sign on her desk. Then he went to his own office and procrastinated.

He wanted to go talk to Edea, see if maybe she could help him remember his meeting with Ultimecia all those months ago, but... he also didn't want to face her. She'd put Ellone's well being before everyone else's and, though she'd been right to do so – if Ultimecia got a hold on Ellone before everyone was prepared, it'd be a disaster of epic proportions –, Seifer still felt... betrayed almost. Squall, Selphie, Irvine, Quistis, Zell, Ellone... all Matrons children except Seifer came out of the war just fine in the other timeline. But Seifer...

He'd been left to his own devices. Out of all the people who should have fought for him – fought to save him the way they were now fighting for Minion – Edea ought to have been at the forefront. Instead, she retreated to Orphanage to lick her wounds and hide from the world. And he died with his posse watching, helpless, while the Galbadians turned him into their scapegoat.

Maybe this Edea wasn't that Edea, but then again... the differences in the timelines couldn't possibly be enough to give her a chance to change yet. This was still the woman who'd hid when he'd needed her the most; he was still the son she'd abandoned.

Seifer looked up from his musings as his door whooshed open. "I thought I'd find you here," Edea said, walking far enough in that the door automatically closed behind her. "The officers in charge of my security remained outside. I hoped you might talk with me, Seifer."

"Matron..." Seifer stood and pulled up a chair so that she could seat herself in front of his desk. "Uh... what brings you here?"

"I... I was hoping you would be willing to tell me the things my husband will not... about the things he has done or failed to do that have hurt this Garden and my children. You have always been the strongest and most observant of my children." She paused as Seifer reseated himself. "You're hesitant to be around me, however. Perhaps angry at me for the pain I have caused you. If you want me to leave..."

"No. Matron... I'm not mad at you... or maybe I am.

"I can understand why you felt the need to protect Ellone from Ultimecia, but she's completely dependent on having others do things for her and no one has taught her to use her abilities wisely. Did you know she's been sending Squall and the others' minds into the past because she wants to force some guy named Laguna Loire to change his decisions and alter our present to suit her concept of an ideal life? You've kept her so isolated that she doesn't understand why what she's doing is wrong. You didn't make her get training, so she expects everyone else to fight her battles for her. The idea of fixing things by changing herself and making the world different in that manner hasn't occurred to her; I doubt it ever will.

"You made her that way, though ultimately her mistakes are her own."

"I didn't realize she was doing that," Edea looked away, ashamed. "I know the decisions I've made were not always the best but... I had hoped that in the end things would turn out as I hope they will. Perhaps Ellone will give up in her quest to change the past."

"It's possible. All she's managed so far, from what I've been told, is to fulfill a couple of predestination paradoxes. I just... want her to stop." They were quiet a moment, as Seifer tried to figure out what else he could say to her; the very uncertainty he was feeling was the same thing that caused him to try procrastinating in the first place. It was too bad Edea seemed to have had the same idea as him.

"I love Garden," Seifer said abruptly. "This place... it's why I found Fujin and Raijin. The three of us... we're a posse. Best friends and family when we need someone to stand at our side. Garden is also the reason Squall and I have managed to stick around each other long enough to start figuring out what it is we really want from one another. But I can't say it's been a good place to grow up."

He sighed and leaned back, making himself comfortable in his chair. It was time to tell Edea what was going on.

A/N – Okay, so I hope this chapter turned out alright; we were trying to set things up for Esthar and get rid of Rinoa. Next up is interlude number three, followed by a foray into Esthar and all the wackiness that ensues over there.


	18. Interlude 3

Disclaimer – I don't own _FFVIII_, because this is how things would have gone in the game if I did.

_Interlude Three_

"You look like you're a couple of million miles away."

Startled, Squall looked away from the giant windows and the view of the world below to look over at the intruder. "I suppose I am," he offered after seeing just who the speaker was.

"Someone down there you're thinking of or just missing being on Terra Firma in general?" Laguna asked, moving to stand beside Squall with a grin.

Squall shrugged, not prepared to answer that question from this man.

Suddenly looking faintly embarrassed, Laguna said, "uh, sorry. I didn't really introduce myself back there," he gestured to the room where Ellone, Irvine, Selphie, and the doctors were. "I'm..."

"I know who you are," Squall interrupted, amused. "You're the Estharian President, Laguna Loire."

"Ah..."

"I'm Squall Leonhart..."

"Balamb Garden's new Commander," Laguna filled in, his expression morphing from embarrassed to uncomfortable.

"Right." Squall returned to staring out the window, his thoughts growing preoccupied with Seifer once more.

"You must care about her a lot, whoever the mystery girl on the ground is," Laguna observed. Squall turned to look at him again, eyebrow raised. "Sorry, you've just got this look about you that says you're thinking of somebody special."

"I do care about _him_ very much," Squall admitted, watching for Laguna's reaction to his words.

"Huh, a guy?" Squall barely kept from rolling his eyes as Laguna stated the obvious. "What's he like, then?"

The older man's curiosity was slowly confirming Squall's suspicions. Ellone had been showing him Laguna's past because he was Squall's father. He was the father who was never there and Squall, like so many other orphans, had longed for a parent more than a few times in his life. People said that you couldn't miss what you never had, but Squall knew that wasn't true. He wanted to be angry with this man but Squall didn't want to judge Laguna without knowing all the facts... facts he was unprepared to demand at the moment. So instead, he replied.

"Seifer's an ass," Squall told him, unhesitatingly. "He's also one of the best people I know." Bringing his eyes back to the planet below, Squall wondered where Seifer was at that moment, beneath the clouds on the seemingly tiny landmasses below. Squall had come with Irvine as moral support and because Seifer was better suited to guarding Edea and Minion... and he'd wanted to see Ellone again. But now... now he wished more than anything that he'd sent Zell or Quistis or one of the security personnel instead. There was nowhere Squall wanted to be more than at Seifer's side...

Just one day ago – or was it two? The cold sleep thing, as well as waking in outer space, had thrown Squall's sense of time out of whack – Seifer had told Squall that he loved him. Hearing Seifer say those words, 'I love you,' sent thrills through Squall's body; he knew that Seifer meant what he said and knowing that Seifer loved him... the intensity of the feelings that had rushed through Squall upon hearing those words had shocked him. He'd wanted... no, needed to touch Seifer, to taste him, and feel Seifer's hands on his body. A sudden possessiveness had coursed through him as well, leaving him confused and shaken.

Seifer loved him... so Seifer was his. Yet Squall had no idea if the reverse was true.

He didn't know what love was. After Ellone left the orphanage, Squall had pushed everyone else away. He wasn't always successful – even as children Seifer was the only one who could slip past his defenses and drag him out of his antisocial funks. For the most part, however, Squall had spent his life alone. He didn't know what it was like to love a friend or a sibling, much less a lover.

Having Seifer in his life as more than a rival and more than a friend... Squall knew he could never, and would never, be willing to give that up. He needed Seifer as much as he needed oxygen. The depth of the emotions he felt for Seifer scared Squall at times, especially now when he felt so distracted by the distance between them.

Was this what it meant to fall in love? To worry for him when they were apart... and desire his company over everyone else's? To feel lighthearted when he would smile and want to make things better for him when he was unhappy? To know his flaws and still find them endearing? To want to be with him for as long and as often as they could manage... forever even?

Stepping forward, Squall pressed a gloved hand against the window. It wasn't just the sex, which was most definitely phenomenal. He'd always known on some level that sex was supposed to feel amazing since people wouldn't do something so awkward with the potential for being regarded as disgusting if it wasn't immensely pleasurable, but not until the first time Seifer had kissed him, the blonde's hand groping his ass, had Squall begun to realize just how _good _touch could feel. Yet everything about Seifer felt... comfortable or amazing or...

Talking with Seifer felt natural in a way it never had with anyone else. When they sparred, it was like they could read each other's thoughts and anticipate one another's actions... unless they were both distracted, but their newest scars were deterrents for that particular scenario. Falling asleep without Seifer wasn't something Squall thought he could do well anymore; he'd grown used to the warm presence of Seifer, the blonde's scent surrounding him and strong arms holding him close. Seifer's snarky, smart-ass comments hiding his sharp intellect and emphasizing his low threshold for incompetence...

"I think... no, I know," Squall said quietly, more to himself than to Laguna, "that I love him." A shiver ran through him and Squall couldn't help but think that those words were the truest things he'd ever said. He loved Seifer.

The alarms went off around them, cutting off any reaction Laguna might have had. Irvine ran into the room, his face pale, his hat in his hand, and his eyes wide with worry. "Selphie woke up, but Squall... she's possessed."

A/N - A glimpse of the future for everyone wondering when Squall's gonna confess his feelings to Seifer. ^_^ Once Squall get's back from space, he's going to get Seifer alone and tell Seifer exactly what he's been wanting to hear. Also, good news! Kit and I have begun plotting out the sequel to this story. We want to explore this universe a bit further, so we've come up with an evil organization and are working on developing some evil OCs to be affiliated with... we shall call it Evil Inc. for now.


	19. Chapter 16

Disclaimer – I don't own _FFVIII_, because this is how things would have gone in the game if I did.

A note from Kit - Apparently it's Emcey's turn to suffer from a cold. According to her roommate, who was kind enough to send me an email suggesting I update since Emcey is hibernating, Emcey now lives in a nest made of lots of pillows and fuzzy blankets and has a large stash of Halls Fruit Breezers that she keeps close at hand at all times. It sounds like she handles her colds the same way I do mine... which makes me wonder if her 'pathetic, sick puppy' expression is as effective as my own. ^_^

_Chapter 16_

Seifer had considered holding back a few times as he told Edea the truth about Garden, from his point of view anyway. In the end, he couldn't soften the blow for her; she needed to know what had been going on with the Gardens while she'd been overseeing Ellone's safety and the development of the White SeeD.

He told her about why he'd started the Disciplinary Committee. He spoke about how Martine had abused his position to keep people whose personal lives, like Minion's, didn't fit his idea of 'normal' out of SeeD and how Kramer had ignored the other man's actions. He explained how, in Balamb, GF use was mandatory and that cadets and SeeDs alike were losing some of their memories; they'd forget family and friends, unwittingly alienating the people who they ought to care for the most. He told her about McCormick and Kramer's reluctance to believe that the rapist might even possibly be one of his SeeDs. Somewhere in there, he also brought up NORG's corruption, the complacency of the Shumi and the old Security Chief, and how Squall had saved his life the night McCormick tried to kill him.

"You and Squall have become so close," Edea said softly, tears in her eyes from what Seifer had told her so far. "I'm glad the two of you have found such happiness together. That... at least there's a bright spot in the midst of all this pain."

"I haven't even told you the things he's done most recently." Seifer glanced over at the digital clock on the wall and stood. "It's late, Matron. I don't know about you, but I'm starving."

"Could we finish this later, then?" Matron looked so vulnerable sitting there in her familiar black dress, hands clasped tightly in her lap, and her long black hair falling around her shoulders and obscuring part of her face for a few moments before she absently tucked the errant locks behind her ears. "I need to know everything, Seifer."

"I'll finish later, when we both have time. We arrived at FH about an hour ago, remember? We'll be heading to Esthar tomorrow morning and, well, I need to talk to Fujin about guiding us past the holographic border system they use to keep foreigners out." He walked around the desk and held out a hand, helping Edea to her feet. He'd never really thought about how small and frail Matron appeared. His childhood memories were that of a woman taller than him and he had very few recent recollections of her; the times in which she was possessed by Ultimecia didn't count. The future Sorceress gave off the impression of being larger than life while inhabiting someone else's body.

"Thank you, Seifer, for telling me all of this."

"You should probably get a second opinion on all of this from Xu, though," Seifer warned her. "I don't like your husband very much and, though I doubt it, I might be casting some of what's happened over the years in an overly biased manner."

"You have been as you always were, my child," Edea told him. "Painfully blunt and brutally honest." She touched his arm briefly and smiled at him. "Out of all my children, you were the one I worried for the least. You have always been talented at taking care of yourself and others. Though..." she frowned, perhaps remembering that he was the one Ultimecia had originally targeted to be her Knight, "perhaps that very determination to help others is why I should have worried more. Because I only sought to protect Ellone, I nearly lost you."

Seifer had no idea how to respond to Matron's words, so he quickly excused himself after ensuring that Matron's security detail would remain with her. He made his way to the cafeteria, wandering with an air of aimlessness as he lost himself in his thoughts.

He'd probably never have closure concerning Matron from the other timeline. The knowledge that Sorceresses could control other people's minds wasn't a big secret – Galbadians knew, though they chose to ignore that particular tidbit of info when it suited them, and Estharians were particularly aware of the capabilities of Sorceresses – so why no one ever tried to help him, to check for magical tampering, was a mystery that would never be answered. Part of Seifer still felt abandoned, but after having talked with Matron, Seifer had a better theory than Edea throwing him to the wolves.

Kramer likely told her to leave everything to him and then he let the world vilify Seifer while keeping his wife in the dark. Of course, that might just be a combination of wishful thinking and deep seated dislike for the man, but in a way it made a sick sort of sense. If Kramer owned up to Seifer having been brainwashed by Ultimecia, then he'd have risked people finding out that Ultimecia had access to students in Balamb Garden for months before her sudden rise to power. Galbadia Garden and the remnants of Trabia Garden would have then insisted on a full inquiry into Balamb Garden's leadership which would have inevitably brought all of Kramer's failings into the light.

Seifer shuddered and pushed the thoughts out of his head. Kramer was an unmitigated bastard, but he wasn't intelligent enough for that level of manipulative cruelty. He'd probably assumed, like everyone else, that Seifer had finally snapped and gone berserk. It was doubtful anyone but Fuu and Rai had even considered that he'd been controlled.

Minion wouldn't have to deal with that sort of shit. It was his fault she was in this mess, but he'd be damned if she had to put up with being the world's favorite scapegoat.

* * *

It was late evening when Seifer finally made his way into Squall's dorm. The brunet was already there, dozing on the bed with the pillows propped up behind him and a book open, but resting against his chest. Seifer stood there, staring intently at the sleeping lion. He longed to step forward and run his fingers through Squall's hair and kiss him awake, but Seifer felt as though he'd been rooted to the spot.

Squall was breathtaking. All Seifer could think was that he loved this man.

Storm blue eyes flickered open and Squall used a bookmark to hold his place before dropping the novel on the bedside table. "I missed you at dinner," Squall said, his voice slightly slurred from sleep.

"I was with Fuu and Rai," he said, walking towards Squall. "Fujin said she'd lead us into Esthar tomorrow."

The brunet nodded and stood. "Irvine wants us to bring Selphie with us. He's hoping that Ellone might know more about Selphie's condition. Otherwise, Dr. Odine is supposed to be living in Esthar and, as the world's foremost expert in magic, he may know something that could help."

"Sounds like a good plan," Seifer said, still feeling that weird mix of guilt that thinking about Selphie's situation brought on. "It's the only thing we can really do for her, isn't it?"

"Yeah..." Squall crossed the distance between them and placed his hands on Seifer's arms, slowly sliding them up until his fingers were brushing against Seifer's collar bones. "Seifer..."

The blonde's heart was pounding. There was an edge to Squall's voice he didn't quite recognize. It was... almost needy sounding. "Yes?" Seifer's throat had gone dry, so his voice came out rougher than he'd intended.

"I..." Squall licked his lips nervously and tried again. "I want you... inside me."

Seifer stared wide-eyed at Squall for a moment, shocked to hear those words and turned on by the sound of Squall's voice saying them.

"All day, I've had your voice stuck in my head, telling me that you love me," Squall's words were coming out faster than normal, as if he needed to say it all at once or he'd never manage at all. "I need you, Seifer."

A soft growl escaped Seifer just before he leaned in, claiming Squall's mouth and letting his hands roam freely over Squall's lithe body. "You have no idea," Seifer moaned when they finally had to pull apart to breathe, "just how fucking sexy you are." He slid a thigh between Squall's leg and pulled him as close as possible, trying desperately to convey how much the brunet's words had affected him. "I love you," he murmured against Squall's ear as they reached the bed.

Moaning, Squall bucked at the sound of Seifer's voice, mewling noises escaping him as Seifer turned his attention to sucking and nipping at Squall's neck as he slowly undressed them. Finally, though, their clothes were gone and Seifer pushed Squall onto the bed, climbed atop the brunet, and began moving his way downwards, intending to draw as many of those deliciously erotic noises from Squall as possible.

"We're gonna need some kind of lube," Seifer panted once he reached Squall's erection. His face was close enough to Squall that the puffs of breath leaving Seifer's mouth were driving Squall crazy, the brunet squirming each time a puff of air caressed his penis. "I don't suppose there's anything on hand besides the stuff we use to clean our gunblades... 'cause it'd be a little frustrating to get a hard-on every time I use it on Hyperion because I can't get the thought of using it with you out of my head."

Squall laughed softly and gestured towards the bedside table. "In the top drawer," he said, smirking as Seifer leaned over to search for whatever Squall had in there.

Almost losing his balance as Squall pushed himself up with his elbows, Seifer groaned as Squall started teasing his nipples. Before their relationship began, Seifer hadn't quite realized just how sensitive those tiny pink nubs really were. But now, every time Squall touched him there – whether he was laving them with his tongue or abusing them with his fingers – jolts of pleasure would run down Seifer's body straight to his groin...

"Hyne," Seifer hissed out, his fingers closing around what had to be the lube Squall had indicated. He pulled it out, never before so pleased to see the unscented hand lotion that was distributed freely to cadets and SeeDs alike. Moving back down to give Squall's neglected cock some attention, Seifer wrapped his hand around Squall's length and pumped it, Squall's head falling back against the pillows as he groaned in pleasure.

Popping the top on the lotion bottle open, Seifer released Squall's cock and coated his fingers in the lotion. "If you change your mind and want me to stop, I will," Seifer said, his voice trembling a little.

"I won't change my mind," Squall huffed out, lifting his hips a little and then letting them drop back against the bed. "Hurry up."

Seifer smirked and pressed an open mouthed kiss against Squall's inner thigh, loving the way Squall gasped in pleasure. "Impatient," Seifer teased, running one of his slick fingers around Squall's entrance. Slowly he slid his index finger past the tight ring of muscle, groaning at the feeling of Squall tensing around him. "Relax," he said breathlessly. "You've got to relax."

"R-right..." Squall took a few sharp breaths, his hands twisting in the sheets, before evening out his inhalations. "Don't stop," he murmured.

Pulling Squall's legs over his shoulders, Seifer added a second finger and began using scissoring motions to stretch the tight hole. This was going to hurt Squall regardless, but he wanted to prevent as much of that pain as possible... which also meant searching out that spot where Squall would...

"Ahn!" Squall let out a sharp yell, his hips bucking against Seifer's finger and his cock twitching in renewed interest. Seifer almost thought he'd hurt Squall, but the look on the brunet's face was definitely that of someone in the throws of passion. "Seifer... ahh... fuck... Seifer!" Squall's cries grew incoherent as Seifer rubbed his fingers against the other man's prostate, adding a third finger and proceeding to fuck the brunet with his fingers for a few moments before removing them completely. Squall whimpered at the loss, his half-lidded blue eyes staring down at Seifer.

Once he'd covered his straining cock in the lotion, Seifer lined himself up against Squall's entrance. "This is really gonna hurt," he warned Squall and, after receiving a 'no shit, Sherlock' expression from Squall, proceeded to slowly slide his way into Squall's tight hole.

"Nnnhh..." Seifer hissed, overwhelmed by the feeling of being enveloped by Squall. He gripped Squall's hips harder and struggled to keep his eyes open. He wanted to watch Squall come, but he'd never felt anything like this before. "So fucking tight," he groaned once he was fully within Squall.

The look on Squall's face was more pain than pleasure as he shifted and demanded, "move!" Seifer didn't hesitate, pulling out until just the tip of his cock remained inside and then shoving back in. He moved slowly at first, adjusting his angle until Squall let out a loud, mewling cry indicating that Seifer had found his prostrate again.

"Ahn..." Squall's hips started to buck, bringing Seifer just a little deeper into Squall's heat. Seifer couldn't take his eyes off of the expression of passion and need on the brunet's face. A thrill of excitement and possessiveness shot through him; he was making Squall feel so damn good and he was the only one who got to see Squall come so completely undone. It was a heady, intoxicating sort of feeling that spurred Seifer to pick up the pace, wrapping his lotion-covered hand around Squall's erection in order to pleasure the brunet from two directions.

Squall's cries grew more frantic in response, his fingers clawing for purchase against Seifer's back. The sharp pain, which let Seifer know that Squall had probably drawn blood, made the intense feeling of pleasure from pushing in and out of Squall's tight body that much sweeter.

Suddenly Squall stiffened and griped Seifer's biceps tightly right before...

"Seifer!"

Squall came loudly with Seifer's name on his lips, his face flushed, eyes flickering shut as his body clenched around Seifer's cock. The feel of Squall's cum splattering over their stomachs, the look on Squall's face, the sound of Squall's voice... all of it sent Seifer over the edge as he thrusted into Squall a final time.

Coming with a shout, Seifer felt the world dim around him as he collapsed against Squall's chest. He had enough thought to roll off to the side and regretfully pull himself out of Squall, earning a muffled sound of protest from the brunet, before wrapping his arms around Squall and bringing Squall close against him. Burying his nose against Squall's hair, Seifer breathed in Squall's scent – a mixture of shampoo and sex and something uniquely Squall – and shuddered against him.

"You'll never be rid of me now," Seifer mumbled against Squall's hair as the brunet used a discarded shirt that had, conveniently enough, fallen beside the bed to clean the cum off his stomach.

"Good," Squall practically purred, twisting around in Seifer's arms to press kisses against the blonde's chest and taking a moment to clean Seifer off too.

"Mmmm... ready for round two so soon?" Seifer teased, his motions languid as he ran his fingers lightly up and down Squall's side.

"Nnn..." Squall's eyes flickered shut for a moment as he leaned into the touch, his cock already showing interest in continuing. "That was..." Squall groaned, unable to find the words to express himself, and pressed himself against Seifer, earning a few moans from the blonde. Seifer smirked, pulling the brunet on top of him.

Definitely time for round two.

* * *

"Are we there yet?"

"Shut up, Zell."

"Yeah, it's Hyne-damned obvious we aren't there yet."

"Seifer, language."

"... Sorry, Matron."

A soft chuckle from Squall made Seifer grin. Even if it was at his expense, Seifer loved the sound of Squall's laugh. Actually, Seifer loved pretty much every sound he'd ever coaxed out of Squall's mouth... except for the screams of pain he recalled causing in the other timeline. But that didn't count because he didn't cause it here.

Squall had woken up sore that morning and watching the stubborn lion hobble into had put a smirk on Seifer's face. He'd been anticipating the argument they'd get into over using a potion to ease Squall's sore ass and he'd eventually won that spat, turning the application of the remedy into an excuse to give Squall a blow job in the shower. Afterwards, though, he'd stood over Squall, his face buried against Squall's neck as he received a torturously slow hand job that had him coming harder than he'd thought possible from something so... simple.

Maybe that was part of what made the whole thing so erotic. The only distractions he'd had from Squall's hand on his cock was Squall's unique scent, the press of their chests against one another, and the feeling of the water pounding against his back.

Even now, the memory of that shower brought as much of a flush to Seifer's face as the memory of the night before.

But now it was just an hour or so before they planned to break for lunch and they'd been walking for hours (Squall was probably secretly thankful he hadn't kept up his stubborn pride that morning) and Seifer could kind of sympathize with Zell's whining. Surely they had to be getting close to Esthar by now. He'd gone in a different way in the other timeline, so Seifer had no idea how far inland they had to travel before reaching Esthar's holographically hidden border.

"Undead... thing... straight ahead," Quistis said, trying to hide a yawn even as she pulled out her whip.

Just as she'd warned, a giant, angry-looking skeleton rose from the sand before them, towering over them and screeching it's rage. Zell chucked a Phoenix Down out it and the thing crumbled to pieces.

"SENTRY," Fujin told them. "CLOSE."

"Did you guys see that?" Zell demanded, bouncing in renewed excitement.

"Yeah, Dincht, we were all standing right here," Seifer intoned in annoyance.

"I totally KOed that skeleton thing with one hit!"

"I've said this many, many times today already and I'm sure I'll be saying it many, many more times as the day progresses," Irvine sighed, shifting Selphie's weight on his back. "Shut up, Zell."

"You're all kinda weird, ya know?" Raijin muttered, shaking his head slowly. "Ya sure you wanna be spending the rest of your life working with these crazies, Seifer? You could still go to FH or apply for late admission in Esthar, ya know," he added, giving Zell, in particular, a wary look.

"Nah, it's too late for that," Seifer waved his hand dismissively, grinning at Squall. "I've already found where I belong."

Squall ducked his head and shook it slowly. "You're an idiot," he mumbled, just loud enough for Seifer to hear.

"I'm your idiot," Seifer corrected, his voice equally soft.

"Yeah..." Squall bumped Seifer's shoulder with his own. "You are."

"HERE!" Fujin walked right up to the edge of the Great Salt Lake, which Seifer had been trying not to think about climbing down into, and ran her hands across an invisible wall. The holographic image of the lake flickered and then a ladder appeared in front of her, leading up into a very dark looking doorway. "ASCEND!" she commanded before taking the initiative in leading the way up.

"Irvine," Seifer tapped the exhausted looking cowboy on the shoulder. "Once Squall and I've gone up, you can pass Selphie to us before climbing the ladder yourself, okay?"

"Right," Irvine nodded. "Just... uh... be careful with her, okay?"

"She's my sister," Seifer responded. "Of course we'll be careful."

Matron smiled fondly, but sadly as she watched them interact. She probably felt guilty for missing out on so much of their lives while they were at Garden. Seifer wanted to take her aside and tell her it would all be okay, but he didn't want to lie to her. He didn't know if it would all be okay this time around.

He'd already caused so many changes: Minion, Selphie... what if having him fighting on their side caused them to lose. Seifer doubted that would happen – he was too good in a fight to become so big a liability – but the growing fear that he'd screwed everything up somehow wouldn't leave him. In the past, he'd always managed to sabotage himself just as things were going good for him.

He remembered finally started to fit in at the orphanage only to alienate everyone by picking on Zell. He'd earned back Selphie and Irvine's trust just in time to lose them as they were adopted. He always acted out when potential parents showed up to look over the kids. He'd pushed Squall away for years in his misguided attempts to get closer to his rival. Now that things were finally going his way – he had a family of sorts, he'd fallen in love with Squall, had an actual sex life, and basically had the job of a lifetime dropped in his lap – the other shoe was bound to fall.

Everything fell apart eventually; that's the way his life went.

Somewhere in the midst of his brooding, Seifer found himself at the top of the ladder, hoisting Selphie up into Squall's waiting arms. As Squall set the sleeping copper-haired girl aside, he gave Seifer a concerned look. "Are you okay?" he asked softly, his hand landing on Seifer's arms as the larger gunblader pulled himself through the doorway into the darkened room beyond.

"I'm fine," Seifer assured him, his worries melting away as Squall slid his hand up and down Seifer's arm soothingly and absently kissed Seifer's shoulder before turning around to give Matron a hand up. Irvine was already determinedly picking Selphie back up.

"I could carry her for a while if you want," Seifer offered. Irvine just shook his head.

"I want to be the first person she sees when she wakes up," Irvine told him after a moment. "It's probably selfish of me to be that way; you and Squall and every one else are just as worried about her as I am, but... I love her. I want to tell her that when she wakes up, so I want to be the first person she sees."

"That's not selfish," Squall told him.

"Squall's right," Quistis agreed. "I kind of understand, I suppose. I mean... I barely know Minion, but there's something about her that's special. I wish I could have snapped her out of the Sorceress' control as I talked to her last night, but... it's like she's sleeping awake and nothing important can really reach her. I wish... I wish I could do more for her now and I don't like settling for being there for her when everything's over. I don't like being helpless."

"Quistis... when I left you with Minion yesterday, it was still mid-afternoon, right?" Seifer waited for her to nod in affirmation before asking, "so what were you talking about with her that lasted long enough for you to refer to the conversation as having taken place last night?"

"Oh... just this and that..." Quistis blushed. "I sent the guards outside so they could watch through the window; I'm sure they were bored enough as it was without having to listen to us chatter."

"You mean flirt?" Seifer asked dryly, amusement obvious in his sudden smirk.

"Maybe she was," Quistis hedged, crossing her arms and huffing.

"Yeah, sure, keep telling yourself it's all one-sided. Maybe you'll even start to believe it, Quisty." Seifer laughed as Quistis glared at him.

Matron giggled softly, her hands covering her mouth delicately. The smile on her face was undeniably joyful. "You're all still so much like the children you were," she said. "I've missed you all so much. Seeing you all together again, acting as I'd imagined..." she ruffled Selphie's hair, the sleeping girl unresponsive to the touch. "Well, almost all of you."

"We'll get her back, too," Irvine said confidently, though the worry in his eyes made his fears obvious.

The floor they were sitting on jerked before anyone could say anything else. Irvine drew Selphie close while Quistis stumbled to her knees. Zell grabbed Matron's arm, steadying her. Fujin and Raijin stood firm, as though they'd been expecting something like this to happen all along, which they likely did. The smirk Fujin shot Seifer certainly said she'd known what would happen and deliberately didn't say anything to him about it.

Her idea of a prank, really.

Brushing the back of his hand against Squall's fingers, Seifer grinned as he felt Squall's hand intertwine with his own. The floor beneath them was still moving, but the darkness surrounding them was slowly giving way to light until suddenly they were zooming through a city on some sort of giant, horizontal lift.

"This is Esthar?" Seifer asked, glancing around in surprise. The city was full of skyscrapers and gaudy looking architecture that somehow managed to create a nice overall effect. It was like they'd walked into a solid illusion; there was tech everywhere and Seifer... felt a little ill as he saw the moon overhead and realized that soon Adel would be descending from space.

It didn't matter that Minion was still in custody at Garden. If she didn't escape and make her way to the Lunatic Pandora, then some other manic follower of Ultimecia's would do it in her place. There was something else, though, that was worrying at the edge of Seifer's mind. Something important... something about Squall.

He couldn't remember. As the buildings seemed to zoom past them, Seifer wracked his brain for what it was that had happened to the 'intrepid heroes' while he'd been locating and moving the Lunatic Pandora, triggering a Lunar Cry in the process. He didn't know beyond the fact that they'd traveled to Esthar City. It was important though, but the memories were too foggy and they slipped further away the more he tried to bring them into order.

"But what about the lake?" Zell protested. "How can all this be here? We saw the lake!"

"HOLOGRAPHIC CAMOUFLAGE!" Fujin barked in response.

"Yeah, the lake was like... like a mirage, ya know?" Rai glanced at Fuu who nodded. He nodded back and Seifer grinned at their familiar interplay. "What we saw wasn't real, but this city is, ya know?"

"I guess..." Zell sulked

It makes sense," Quistis said, getting to her feet. "It's a good way to keep enemies and nosy neighbors away," she gave Seifer a sharp look at the word 'nosy.' He just smirked in return.

"I wonder where we're heading," Matron mused. "I hope it won't be difficult to find Doctor Odine... or to bind my powers."

"Whatever happens, we'll take care of you," Squall promised her, squeezing Seifer's hand briefly and receiving a squeeze back in support. "We're not turning back now, after coming so far."

The lift shuddered to a stop moments later. "Looks like the ride's over, ya know?" Raijin observed as they gathered around the glass doorway.

The door slid open and a pale blue walkway stretched out before them. "FOLLOW!" Fujin commanded, hurrying out onto the walkway.

"You heard the lady," Seifer drawled, gesturing for everyone to follow. He reluctantly released Squall's hand as they moved to follow the rest onto the walkway.

A few moments later the group was standing on some sort of abandoned balcony with what looked like monorail tracks in front of them. Seifer had never seen a monorail train before, but he'd heard about them and the railing, at least, matched the description he'd read about the tracks. All in all, Esthar was shaping up to be a pretty amazing place.

"Judging from their technology, they must know we're here. Do you know what kind of reaction they might have to us, Fujin?" Squall asked.

"Only those of us who've left with permission know the secret ways back in," Fujin said, dropping her speech affectation in favor of clarity. "For now, they'll assume that we're Estharians who are returning from a vacation or something in one of the outside countries. Even when they do find out who we are, there won't be any hostility, though we will be placed under guard. Since I brought you all here, my motives will be in question until your motives have been ascertained as being nonthreatening to this nation."

"In other words, house arrest," Seifer summed up. "Not too bad, considering we're here unwanted and unannounced." He sensed, more than saw, Squall tense up at the same time as Quistis and Zell. "Squall...?"

"No... not now..." Squall swayed, his right hand pressing against his temple, as though to ward off a headache.

"What's going on?" Matron demanded.

Seifer caught Squall as he collapsed, unconscious; Quistis and Irvine dropped to the floor at the same time, their eyes shut as they were forced into a false sleep. "I told you about what Ellone's been trying to do, remember?" Seifer let Matron fill in the rest.

"So this is how Ellone's power works," Edea sounded intrigued despite her displeasure over Ellone's actions. "I've never seen her abilities at work before; I never thought I would."

"Ellone's got really crappy timing," Seifer grumbled, sitting down and pulling Squall onto his lap.

"Language, Seifer," Matron reprimanded him.

"Sorry, Matron," Seifer responded reflexively, not really paying attention as he ran his fingers lightly through Squall's hair.

* * *

In retrospect, Ellone's timing actually wasn't all that horrid. The entire hour that Squall and the others spent unconscious was unremarkable. Seifer wound up playing various card games with Fuu and Rai (Fuu was the one who brought the deck, Rai was the one who won all the make believe money in poker, and Seifer kept cheating at Go Fish). Matron got into a discussion with Zell about the merits and detractions of GF usage. Occasionally Seifer would comment on something they were saying, but he was pretty content to sit there with Squall on his lap and a couple of cards in hand.

"Mmmm..." Squall twisted his face to the side as he started to wake up. "Seifer?" he mumbled sleepily, pulling away to stare at the blonde. Looking around, wakefulness finally set in fully. "Ellone really needs to stop doing that," he grumbled, leaning his forehead against Seifer's shoulder.

"Or she could at least find some way to warn us," Quistis added her own complaint, wincing as she rubbed her shoulders. "I feel like a bruise."

Irvine sat up, looking completely unfazed. "Laguna got caught up in the rebellion against Adel during his quest to save Ellone; do you think he's still somewhere in Esthar?"

"It'd explain why Ellone left with the Estharians instead of sticking around the..." Seifer trailed off and wrinkled his nose distastefully, "never mind. It could have been that she figured any company was better than the White SeeDs. At the least, the Estharians have to be less condescending."

"Not necessarily," Squall muttered, moving off of Seifer. The brunet was blushing, having realized he'd basically been snuggling in public.

Seifer smirked, all set to tease Squall a little, and then shifted his legs. His smirk disappeared as he winced and started rubbing his legs, moving them slowly as the painful sensation began to register.

"Something wrong, Seifer?" Matron asked, catching sight of his expression.

"Pins and needles are running up and down my legs," he responded tightly.

This time Squall smirked. "You brought it on yourself," he murmured, growing even more amused as the blonde glared at him.

"Do you guys hear that?" Irvine interrupted, standing abruptly. He walked towards the tracks and peered off into the distance. "Something is headed our way."

Trying to get to his feet, Seifer nearly fell on his ass as his legs refused to cooperate correctly. Squall hurriedly stood to grab his arm, though, and steadied Seifer. "Idiot," Squall mumbled, his hands curling around Seifer's arm just in case the blonde's legs decided to continue being disobedient.

"Love you," Seifer whispered back, impish delight rising in his chest at the sight of Squall's subtle response; eyes darkening and hands tightening, Squall flushed slightly as Seifer's words affected him.

The arrival of some sort of giant car, which apparently ran on the monorail, grabbed everybody's attention. It screeched to a stop, causing the whole group to wince almost simultaneously. A few moments later, the door popped open and a man stepped out of the car.

"Sorceress Edea?" The man asked hesitantly.

Matron stepped forward. "Yes," she responded, smiling kindly at the man. "I've come to see Dr. Odine."

"Please explain what this is regarding," was the immediate response.

"I have come to have my powers sealed away," Edea told him. "I've been led to believe that Dr. Odine knows a way to do so." She paused and then gestured to Irvine, who was carrying Selphie on his back once more. "Also, we were hoping to consult Ellone Leonhart," Squall stiffened at Matron's words, his grip on Seifer's arm growing painful. "Her foster sister has been adversely affected by magic and it is possible Ellone may know how to reverse the damage."

"While Dr. Odine is easily accessible, the Lady Ellone is... currently unavailable," the man told them. "Also... Leonhart? I was led to believe her name was Loire."

"Ah, so she's using her Uncle's name again?" Matron sighed unhappily. "I should have realized..." she shook her head and asked, "will you take us to Dr. Odine, then?"

"Very well. If you will all get into the vehicle, I'll instruct my driver to take us to the Presidential Palace." He turned on his heel and opened the car doors before returning to the front seat and shutting himself into the vehicle.

"Matron?" Squall's voice sounded dangerously controlled to Seifer's ears. The lithe gunblader sounded about ready to snap. "Ellone Leonhart?" he hissed, eyes narrowing. "I'd wondered why she kept choosing me when everyone else kept changing... Ellone always sends me back to the past. What she's trying to change... she's my sister, isn't she?"

"You're mother..."

"Raine," Squall filled in, ignoring the looks he was now receiving from Quistis, Zell, and Irvine, who knew the most about the Dream World excursions into the past.

"Yes. Raine adopted Ellone some years before you were born. Ellone is your sister." Matron paused and then added, "she choose to stay apart from you so that people would not be as likely to connect the two of you. Ellone's powers made her a target during Adel's reign and she has become one again now that Ultimecia has embarked on a quest to alter our present. She did not wish to endanger you."

"..." Squall visibly closed himself off. Seifer had forgotten just how emotionless Squall could make himself appear, though the fact that he was still cutting off circulation to Seifer's lower arm gave away the fact that the brunet was fuming internally. "Whatever," he snapped. Matron flinched at Squall's tone and opened her mouth to respond, but Squall wasn't paying her any more attention.

Expression softening slightly as he looked at Seifer, Squall released his 'choke hold' on Seifer's arm. "Are your legs better?" he asked quietly.

"Yeah, lets just get out of here," Seifer responded, following Squall towards the car. He paused by Edea, though, and told her, "What you just told Squall amounts to an excuse for not doing the right thing where he and Ellone are concerned. How much of what happened was really her decision and how much was you and your husband laying guilty 'what if' style situations on her?"

Matron looked away. "Perhaps I did the wrong thing where Squall was concerned, but... there was a promise I was trying to keep. I... I can't explain just yet. Please... wait until I can tell Squall before deciding whether to hate me for my choices."

"I don't hate you, Matron. Though..." he snorted at the irony of what he was about to say. "Maybe I'm disappointed." Wasn't that what a parent was supposed to say when their kid fucked up? Yet here he was saying those words to the only parent he'd ever claim. He shrugged and hurried into the car in order to get a seat beside Squall.

Another note from Kit - Well, we're working our way through disk three now. Next chapter will send Squall, Selphie, and Irvine into space in order to get the Ragnarok (the most important part of visiting the space station during the game, in my opinion; Rinoa could have stayed comatose and I'd have been a lot happier) while Seifer and the rest get to deal with the Lunatic Pandora. But as to who is driving the giant tower of doom this time around... you'll have to wait until next time. We're on the home stretch now, though. Also, if you're wondering what Matron is talking about there at the end, that'll be addressed much, much later. She actually did have good intentions in keeping Ellone and Squall apart, though clearly Squall isn't ready to hear what she has to say on the subject and Matron doesn't think it's time to tell him anyway.


	20. Chapter 17

Disclaimer - No one here owns _FF8_. Our loss... think of all that money we don't get to have.

A/N from Kit - I get to update again :) Emcey and I are both pretty busy this semester; she's got 18 hours of classes and is volunteering at an animal shelter. I'm taking 12 hours of classes and 20 hours of work at my internship. We're tired little authoresses... who have decided that the weekend is the best time to update from now on. Also, this chapter is a little shorter than we've been turning out lately. It's exactly 16 pages, as opposed to our more recent chapters which are usually around 18-19. It's odd, though, because it felt longer when we were writing it. There's a lot packed into this chapter, but the flow is pretty good. We're satisfied with it, so up it goes.

_Chapter 17_

The city of Esthar, visible just outside the windows of the car, was made of towering, multicolored skyscrapers that on their own might have been considered garish but together gave the impression of being majestic. Not that Seifer was really paying all that much attention to what was going on outside the window.

No, Seifer's attention was on the words he'd just heard from the cell phone in his hand. Before leaving Garden, both Squall and Seifer had been issued cell phones – clunky things more likely to drop calls than receive them, though apparently Esthar had great reception. Or, at least, Seifer's cell thought Esthar had great reception. Squall's was adamantly displaying the 'no signal' symbol on its screen.

Anyway, the important thing was that one of them could be reached. Not that the news Jade Emrys had for Seifer was particularly good. If anything, it made his sense of foreboding that much worse.

Closing the phone with an audible snap, Seifer took a deep breath and leaned slightly against Squall's shoulder. The brunet leaned back and linked his hand with Seifer's, squeezing gently. "Minion escaped," Seifer said quietly, so that their Estharian guide and driver wouldn't hear. "She was being escorted back to the cells, managed to take down her guards, and ran right out into FH. Emrys is still trying to get a better idea of how it all happened."

"Was anyone hurt?"

"A few concussions, but no serious injuries. Minion apparently turned the stairs into a water slide to stop anyone from following her to the balcony exit on the second floor. Emrys is also threatening death to anyone who so much as mentions anything related to _Lamb Chop's Play-Along_. Basically, it was chaos Minion style." Seifer shrugged. "Unfortunately, I don't know my security force well enough to say if this was because Minion's that good or because the guards were incompetent."

"I guess we'll find out when we finally get back to Garden." Squall looked around at their team. "Minion's probably headed for somewhere in Esthar. We'll need to keep a look out for her."

"Affirmative," Fujin said, while everyone else just nodded.

"We'll be arriving at the Presidential Palace shortly," their guide told them, craning around to peer into the back part of the car where they were crammed in.

Edea sighed worriedly. "I hope Dr. Odine is there," she said as the car pulled to a stop.

As the doors opened, Seifer got his first look at the Presidential Palace. The place was immense, totally deserving of being referred to as a palace. He couldn't believe that someone would actually live in a place like that. It just seemed so… impractical. Though, the guest accommodations were probably stellar.

* * *

"That is the very reason I am here. I seek the doctor's help," Edea sounded very much like a damsel in distress as she finished explaining her circumstances to the guide who'd brought them to the palace. "I wish to be free of Sorceress Ultimecia's control."

"Zat will be easy."

Seifer looked up as Dr. Odine walked into the room. Though Seifer had never met the scientist in the other time line, Odine's reputation for being a pompous ass was pretty legendary within Estharian borders. As evidence of the doctor's pompousness, his accent was obviously faked; he was aiming for Northern Trabian and just sounded like he had a bad cold instead.

"We just exorcise the sorceress," he said, as if all it'd take was a Priest from the Church of Hyne and a few blessings. "There iz nothing Odine cannot do." Seifer snorted softly. Referring to oneself in the third person was never a good sign.

"I leave everything in your hands," Matron responded in relief. It was all Seifer could do to refrain from pulling her aside and asking her if she was sure trusting herself to a man who presented himself like a quack was really such a great idea.

Matron was a big girl. She could take care of herself… in theory.

"You mentioned wanting to see Ellone," the guide said, turning to Irvine.

"That's right," the cowboy agreed. He gestured to Selphie, who lay on a couch in the room. "Ellone may know how to help heal Selphie. It's really important that we see her as soon as possible."

"That's a bit problematic at the moment. You see… Ellone is currently aboard Station Centauri… our space station. Our President is there conducting the yearly review and, as she is his long-missing niece, we sent her there to join him and to gain protection from the Sorceress Ultimecia." The guide gestured worriedly as he spoke, his movements clearly agitated.

"Send them into space," Odine interrupted. "I give ze permission."

There was a long pause as their guide stared at Odine searchingly. "Very well. We only have one capsule ready for launch at the Lunar Gate. Counting your friend Selphie, only three of you can go."

"Squall?" Irvine turned to Squall, his tone uncertain.

"I'll go with you," was the quiet, damning reply.

Seifer felt cold. _This _was what he'd forgotten. At the time of the Lunar Cry, Squall would be on the space station. The space station wouldn't survive the descent of the monsters from the moon to the planet below and would instead be destroyed; the inhabitants would be forced to evacuate in relatively tiny escape pods.

Not everyone would survive the catastrophe.

Irvine looked relieved; he got permission and a calming influence to go with him all in a single reply. Seifer fought to keep his panic off his face.

Squall would be fine this time too. Besides, they would need the Ragnarok to reach the Lunatic Pandora in time to fight save Ellone and fight Adel. So everything had to work out okay.

_It had to._

Numbly, Seifer listened as Odine convinced Squall and Irvine to let him observe Selphie before she was sent into space and their guide told them it'd be about an hour before they could be escorted to the launch facility. Before leaving them in the lounge, Selphie having already been taken away by Odine's henchmen… er, lab assistants, the guide added that only the two people being sent into space could go to the ground control site for security reasons.

"Guess we've gotta make our goodbyes now, then," Irvine drawled, nervously pacing off to one side of the room. He kept glancing over at the door where Selphie had been taken, making it obvious where his thoughts were at.

"Squall?" Seifer cocked his head to the side, conveying to Squall that he wanted to talk to him alone outside. Squall nodded and the two of them went out into the hall, which was thankfully empty.

"Seifer," Squall bit his lip for a second nervously. "I'm not going to change my mind about going up there with Irvine."

"I'm not going to ask you to," Seifer responded. "I just… I have a bad feeling about all this. So be careful." He reached out, brushing his fingers lightly across the side of Squall's face. "I love you. I don't… I… I can't…"

Squall leaned in, quieting Seifer with a kiss. "I know."

Pulling Squall closer, Seifer slid his arms around the lithe gunblader and buried his face against his neck, breathing in the brunet's scent. "Why you? Why can't someone else go with him?"

"Seifer, take a look at the pictures on the table there," Squall said, pulling away and gesturing to the fancy looking buffet table, which was made to look inconspicuous, instead of out of place, by covering it in curios and picture frames.

Picking up a random frame, Seifer peered at the people pictured within. One was a bulky guy carrying what looked like a giant anchor, of all things. It was probably a heavily modified harpoon, but it probably weighed a ton and seemed like a terrible choice in weaponry. The second guy was likely around Squall's height with dark skin and a sort of effeminately handsome look to him that Seifer had only ever seen in Squall before. Though… Squall was definitely sexier. The third guy, however… looked familiar.

"Huh… haven't I seen him before…?" Seifer tilted his head to the side and then nodded as he remembered. "Yeah, he's the actor from some old, B-grade Sorceress flick."

"He's Laguna Loire," Squall informed him quietly. "I noticed these pictures coming in, but I was too focused on Selphie and Matron to think about what it meant. At least, I was until Ellone was referred to as the President's niece. The Estharian President is Laguna Loire."

"The Estharian President… is this guy," Seifer gestured to Loire's face in the photo as he set the picture back where he'd found it. "No way. No fucking way. You described him as a screw up."

"That's the impression I got, but Ellone only showed me a handful of moments from his life. That's not really enough to know much about him, really," Squall protested, his voice growing strained.

"What aren't you telling me?"

"Matron confirmed that Raine is my mother. So who do you think my father is?"

Seifer tilted the photo so that he could see it better and took a really good look this time. Now that he was looking for it, the resemblance was uncanny. "You think Loire is your father."

"It makes sense."

"This has 'soap opera' stamped all over it," Seifer groaned. Seeing Squall's glare, he added hastily, "I don't doubt you're right, Squall. It's just… Selphie is comatose, Minion is brainwashed, and you're discovering your long lost father… all we need now is for someone to develop amnesia and we've got the makings of the next hit soap opera."

"Well… there's that thing with the GFs," Squall allowed, a faint smile causing the corners of his lips to turn up in amusement.

"See," Seifer reached out and tugged Squall close. "So, are you going to let him know he's your father or are you just going to meet him?"

"I just want to meet him. I… I don't want to do more than meet him without you there with me." Squall burrowed against Seifer's chest. "I need to meet him."

"I get it," Seifer told him. "If I knew who my parents were and one of them was still alive, then I'd want to meet them. I'd want to know who they were and why…"

"Why he never came for me."

Seifer tightened his hold on Squall and pressed a kiss against the top of his head. They stood there quietly for a while, just holding each other. "We should go back in," Seifer finally said. "They probably think we're having sex out here."

Squall smacked Seifer's arm really, really hard.

* * *

"Man, I hope everything goes well," Zell muttered as they watched the capsule launch on the screen in front of them

"I think they'll be alright," Quistis offered.

"Thanks for letting us watch," Seifer told Odine's lab techs, who invited the SeeDs, and Edea, to watch the launch with them.

"No problem. Your friends are in for a treat," the lead tech told them. "The station is state of the art and has an amazing view of the planet. After seeing our world from up there, you can't help but look at life differently."

"I'm sure they'll have lots to tell us when they return," Edea agreed.

"So, uh… while Mrs. Kramer stays here, how would the rest of you like a tour of the University campus?" asked the tech. "Miss Engel did get accepted there for the upcoming Fall Semester, right?"

"That's correct," Fujin spoke up. "A tour would be appreciated."

"Yeah, it'd be cool to see where you're gonna be taking classes, ya know?" Raijin agreed enthusiastically.

"Sounds good to me," Quistis agreed. "We don't really have much else to do while we're here."

Seifer glanced at Zell, who shrugged, and then nodded at the tech. "A tour sounds great. Matron, will you be alright here on your own or do you want someone to stick around with you?"

"I'll be fine, Seifer," she responded with a fond smile. "All of you, enjoy yourselves."

He bit back a sarcastic response. Odds were, he would enjoy himself… once the tour got started and he could put his worries about Squall out of his mind for a little while. He nodded, shoved his hands into his pockets, and quietly followed the others out of the room.

A short ride later and they were on the campus at the student union eating lunch with a tour guide, Rodri Neelson. Rodri was happily chattering away with Quistis and Zell, but Seifer, Fujin, and Raijin kept a separate conversation going.

"So, are you anxious being away from your boyfriend?" Fujin teased.

Seifer responded by sticking his tongue out at her. "I am perfectly capable of being away from Squall without suffering a nervous breakdown. So, what do you think of the campus?"

"Huge," she said, sounding a little daunted. "Nothing like Garden."

"It's pretty, though," Raijin chimed in. "All those colorful buildings and the landscaping is well done, ya know?"

"I think I'll like it here," Fujin decided, leaning against Raijin's shoulder. The big guy grinned and slipped his arm around her shoulder. "Visit me on weekends?" she asked him.

"Nowhere else I'd rather be than with you, ya know?" Raijin responded with a grin.

"You have to visit when you can too," Fuu told Seifer.

"Of course." Seifer smiled and eyed his empty plate. He'd already finished up his food, but Fujin had some fries left on hers…

Fujin's plate slid further away from him. "Don't even think about it," she warned.

"Spoil sport."

Raijin reached over to try his luck and cried out in mock-pain when he got his hand swatted for his trouble.

The plates on their table started to shake as panicked voices began to filter in from outside.

"What the hell?" Zell stood up, looking around in surprise. "Are earthquakes common around here?"

"No, they aren't," Rodri responded.

"Let's check it out," Seifer said, also getting to his feet. He led the way outside, the shouts growing more understandable the closer they got.

"It's the Lunatic Pandora!"

"Holy Hyne, the Pandora!"

"The Galbadians must be responsible!"

"No way, didn't that get trashed after the war?"

"There must be a Sorceress responsible!"

"Cue the panicking mob," Seifer muttered under his breath as they stared up at the giant monstrosity flying their way.

"It's a shame Selphie isn't here to see this," Quistis muttered. "I'm sure she'd have a _wonderful _description for that floating monolith."

"Aww, Quisty, do you miss Selphie's perverted commentary that much?" Zell asked with a laugh.

Quistis crossed her arms and huffed at him. "We should try to get aboard that thing. Cadell is likely onboard, so our best chance at recapturing her is if we can get in there somehow."

Ignoring Rodri's confused sputtering, Seifer turned to Fuu and Rai. "Are the two of you coming with us or staying here?"

They exchanged a look and nodded. "We're a posse, ya know? Of course we're going with you."

Hurrying over to a comm terminal, Seifer input the number they'd been given to reach Matron. Dr. Odine answered, just like Seifer had figured he would. "Ah… yes, you are calling about the Lunatic Pandora, no?"

"We need to get on board that thing," Seifer told him, hoping for as little nonsense from this guy as possible.

"This iz quite exciting," the doctor buzzed, smirking at them. "It has been a long time since I last saw Lunatic Pandora."

"That's great…" Seifer started to say sarcastically, only to be cut off by the far too literal doctor.

"Oh! You vant to hear my story? Zat iz nice. I would be happy to tell you. I've been investigating ze Pandora since it was excavated. So we serviced it and investigated..."

"We don't have time for stories, Odine," Seifer snapped. "What part of 'we need to get on board that thing' didn't sound urgent to you?"

"Ze young people these dayz… so impatient," Odine grumbled. "Fine. In a few minutes, ze Lunatic Pandora will pass by ze inner skyway in ze center of ze city. It iz not far from ze University. If you can get zere in time, then you should be able to board ze Lunatic Pandora and attempt to halt its progress. Should you miss it, then you have to other places to try; first ze place where ze two inner city skyways cross and, second, ze section of ze skyway north of ze shopping mall. If you miss all three places, zen you will have lost your chance of getting aboard."

"We appreciate the intel, Doctor," Seifer told him, reaching for the off switch to disconnect the call.

"Wait! I vant to talk some more… Ze culprit iz not Galbadia…" the connect broke, much to Seifer's relief.

"Okay, the first place we need to try is right up there," Seifer pointed up at the skyway above them. "Neelson, can you tell us the fastest route to the skyway?"

"Uh, yeah, there's some elevators and stairs over to the right. It leads up to the skyway." He looked at the SeeDs, as well as Fuu and Rai, with a nervous expression. "I'm, uh, gonna stay here."

"Yeah, sure," Seifer dismissed him, already headed for the stairs. "Let's get a move on."

The race to the top of the skyway seemed to take forever; Seifer hated the idea that they might miss the Lunatic Pandora, but he also knew it was too soon to stop Minion. But then… if she was stopped now, then Squall would never be put in danger from a Lunar Cry. Conflicted over what the right course to take was, Seifer pushed himself that much harder.

They reached the top right as the Lunatic Pandora began passing over the skyway. There was an open access point that was close enough to the skyway that they could easily get aboard, if not for one problem. Three robotic guards leapt out of the entrance, tackling Seifer, Zell, and Fujin to the ground.

Raijin charged the guard on Fujin while Quistis helped Zell with his. Seifer kicked his guard off and sprang to his feet, unsheathing his gunblade in order to carve through the machine.

"Looks like they left the door open for us," Zell observed, hopping on board. The rest of them followed the tattooed blonde, Raijin being the last to get on mere seconds before the opening left the skyway.

"That was close, ya know," he muttered, relieved at being safe.

"Yeah," Seifer agreed. "Almost too close. So… which way to the bridge?" he asked, gesturing to the three different directions they could take.

"That way," Quistis and Fujin chorused… pointing in opposite directions.

"I kinda like this way," Zell added, kicking his foot in the third direction with a grin.

"Real helpful, Chicken-wuss," Seifer grumbled, giving his fellow blonde a dark look. "Left it is," Seifer added, turning in the direction Fujin had picked.

As luck would have it, they came upon a set of stairs around the first corner and headed up. There were so many twists and turns within the place, however, that they soon became completely lost. Even with his foggy memories of the other time line, Seifer couldn't even begin to figure out where they were within the monolith.

"INTRUDERS!"

The five of them froze in place and then slowly, very slowly, began to turn around. Standing behind them was a giant robot. Seifer recognized it as one of the many security systems employed by the Lunatic Pandora's mainframe. This one, if he wasn't mistaken, could use several different kinds of magic in highly unusual ways.

Like paralyzing them… and floating them in the air… and tossing them out the nearest window.

"Ow…" Zell groaned. They were all outside the Lunatic Pandora again.

"My back hurts," Quistis mumbled, sitting up with a wince.

"Lucky," Fujin observed. "Soft landing."

"Yeah. We could have been killed, ya know?" Raijin agreed.

"Do any of you remember what the Lunatic Pandora is meant for?" Seifer asked, forcing himself to stand up despite the dull ache running through his body.

Damn… he didn't even have the promise of Squall soothing that ache away later to focus on. This sucked…

"Uh… intimidation?" Zell guessed.

"Idiot," Fujin muttered, smacking Zell upside the head. She smirked when he scowled at her.

"No, Chicken-wuss. Nice try; would anyone else care to guess?" Seifer stared up at the monolith, trying to remember the layout of the upper floors. It was no use, however. He'd been back so long that the memories were slipping through his fingers.

"The Lunar Cry," Quistis spoke up, her voice sounding shaken. "The Lunatic Pandora was created by Adel for the purpose of causing a Lunar Cry. The destruction caused by a Lunar Cry has the potential to cause massive damage, not to mention the havoc caused by the monsters once they've landed on our world."

"No way…" Raijin shook his head. "Cadell wouldn't cause a Lunar Cry, ya know? It's just not in her nature. She's wouldn't… she wouldn't, ya know?"

"Negative." Fujin reached out to clasp Raijin's hand. "She's not herself. For the Sorceress… she'd do it."

In the distance, they could see the Lunatic Pandora begin to pass over the outside edge of Tears Point, the energy collectors growing red.

* * *

The Estharians were doing everything possible to halt the Lunar Cry, or so they said. The SeeDs were basically shunted to the side, fed dinner, and pushed into guest rooms for the night, so Seifer really had no idea if the Estharians were actually doing anything useful at all.

Given Odine's seeming obsession with the Lunatic Pandora, it wouldn't have surprised him if the doctor were secretly aiding the Sorceress just because he wanted to see the Lunatic Pandora in action in order to collect data on it. The bastard had absolutely no morals; human life meant nothing to him unless it could be used in the name of furthering science.

The lack of responsibilities, however, was driving Seifer nuts. The down time gave him far too much breathing room to think about Squall being up there in space where the Lunar Cry was about to wreak havoc. The idea of Squall being up there in the midst of the upcoming chaos terrified him and he'd let him go without putting up a fight.

Not that he could have done anything about it. The idea of even trying to stop Squall, to have forbidden the brunet from going, was laughable. Squall wouldn't have tolerated that sort of treatment and Seifer loved him for it.

He loved Squall for a lot of reasons, actually.

Tossing the covers off himself, Seifer got dressed and wandered out into the hall, making his way to the kitchens he'd noted earlier in the evening when the Estharian officials had been doing their damnedest to keep the nosy SeeDs out of the way. He couldn't sleep, so he might as well find something to snack on since he'd barely had anything for dinner. He'd been too worried to eat at the time.

Quietly pushing the door open, Seifer padded into the kitchen and then froze. A dark skinned man, the one from the picture Seifer had seen of Laguna Loire, stood in the light of an open refrigerator door.

"Hello… you're one of the SeeDs who arrived today, correct?" The man shut the door, a container of deli-cut ham and cheese in hand. "I was just about to make a late night snack. Care to join me?"

"Uh… sure." Seifer shrugged. A snack was the reason he'd made his way to the kitchen, after all. "I'm Seifer Almasy," he added.

"It's a pleasure to meet you, SeeD Almasy," the man replied. "I am Kiros Seagil, Vice President of Esthar."

"So I'm snacking with the big cheese, then?" He couldn't help it. Really, he couldn't.

Kiros laughed and smiled. "Ah, Laguna would have loved that joke. It's nice to see that SeeD do have a sense of humor."

"Laguna… as in Loire? He's the President, right?" Seifer walked over to join Kiros at the counter. "My foster sister's uncle… still seems a little weird."

"Your foster sister?"

"Ellone. She and I were at the same orphanage before I was sent to Garden," Seifer explained. "The two other SeeD spent time there too, as did the three who left for the space station yesterday."

"You were one of Edea's orphans, then," Kiros observed, pulling some sliced bread out of a silver box on the counter and passing some to Seifer.

"Yeah."

"Would any of the SeeD here today happen to be Squall Leonhart?" Kiros asked abruptly. "Ellone spoke of him before she left to rendezvous with Laguna in space."

"Squall is one of the SeeD who went to the station," Seifer told him, amused by Kiros' attempt to disguise the origin of his interest in Squall.

"Really?" The response was almost strangled in tone.

"Yup." Seifer tried hard not to laugh since Kiros was probably worried about his friend doing something horrifyingly embarrassing upon meeting Squall… like pulling the reticent brunet into a hug and declaring something along the lines of reclaiming his long lost 'baby.' Loire wouldn't live long if he did anything like that.

"Has anyone sent word to the space station about the Lunatic Pandora?" Seifer asked. "When the capsule was being launched today, I couldn't help but notice it looked like it was shooting at the moon… and since the Lunatic Pandora was created to cause Lunar Cries…" he trailed off to let Kiros form his own conclusions.

"The station won't be in communications range for another hour, which is why I'm still awake," Kiros told him. "I intend to contact the station personally to apprise them of the situation. We're well aware that, should the Lunatic Pandora be used to trigger a Lunar Cry, the station might very well be in the path of the monsters that will fall from the moon's surface."

"Good." It wouldn't be soon enough, but Seifer felt a little better nonetheless. Selphie was probably already possessed by the Sorceress again and causing all sorts of havoc up on the station. He knew that Ultimecia would do something important on the station before the Lunar Cry… something that would cause Adel to awaken quickly once the seal containing her began to degrade.

"What's SeeD Leonhart like?" Kiros asked abruptly.

"Huh?" Seifer looked up from his sandwich, which he'd only just finished putting together. "Squall… he's the very definition of stoic most of the time. He's the quietest and most reserved person I've ever met; sometimes holding a conversation with him is like pulling teeth. But sparring with him… he's the most passionate fighter I know." Seifer grinned absently, recalling their last spar. That was the night of their first kiss… the first night they'd slept together…

"You care for him deeply." Kiros looked amused at Seifer's wordless surprise. "I can see it in your eyes and hear it in your words. Leonhart is very dear to you."

Seifer quirked an eyebrow and gave Kiros a searching look. "Yeah… you could say that. I love him."

"Bold words from someone so young."

"I may be young, but I know myself well enough," Seifer countered with a sardonic smile. "It's not something I'd mistake anything else for."

"Good. That sort of confidence will serve you well, SeeD Almasy." Kiros picked up his sandwich and headed for the door. "I hope we meet again. Oh… put away the ham and cheese when you're done, if you don't mind."

"Yeah, sure thing." Seifer laughed and took a bite of his sandwich as he watched Kiros disappear into the dark hall beyond the door.

Somehow, he actually felt a lot better about things now.


	21. Chapter 18

Disclaimer - No one here owns _FF8_. Our loss... think of all that money we don't get to have.

A/N - It is I, Emcey! I have returned... and damn, was this a horrible chapter to write. Oh, it turned out okay, but the number of times open office crashed on me, destroying bits and pieces of hard work... sigh... I had this really steamy sex scene that was totally demolished by open office dying on me. I rewrote it, but I miss the original version. And then there was the sparing scene... I was halfway through that when my laptop froze for no particular reason. Grrrrrrr... though Kit did a great job of rewriting that scene for me since I was fed up at that point. Kit had less trouble than I with the writing itself, but far more difficulty finding time to work on it thanks to a sudden onslaught of tests and projects beings scheduled one right after the other. Anyway, I'm gonna post this before I strangle it.

_Chapter 18_

Despite feeling more relaxed after his conversation with Kiros, Seifer didn't get much in the way of sleep that night. He tossed and turned in the unfamiliar bed for hours, unable to get comfortable. He missed the way Squall seemed to fit perfectly against his body, the feeling of the brunet's arm draped over his waist, the musky scent that was uniquely Squalls... the feeling of soft, chocolate colored hair tucked beneath his chin or snuggled against his chest...

After waking from barely an hour and a half of sleep and feeling distinctly disgruntled and unrested, Seifer had to admit, at least to himself, that he no longer slept well without Squall there with him. He was addicted to Squall, and more than just a little.

His feelings for Squall, however, explained nauseous feeling that was threatening to make him search out the nearest bathroom at the sight of the red swarm of monsters descending upon the Lunatic Pandora in the distance. Somewhere, in the space between the moon and the planet, Squall was on the Space Station, a relatively tiny hunk of metal, plastic, and glass that was surely in the process of being ripped apart. Staring out the window of his guest room at the horrifying sight, Seifer fought against the urge to scream in frustration.

Seifer's thoughts kept going in circles; he should have found a way to stop Squall from going up there into danger. He should have found a way to convince Ellone to return to the planet with Loire as an escort. He should have...

He knew what the future was supposed to hold, after all. He should have fucking changed things.

A rapping at the door distracted Seifer from his increasingly morose thoughts. He looked up in time to see Fujin and Raijin walk in, the door shutting softly behind them.

"Lunar Cry..." Fujin mumbled her eye glued to the window.

"That's just so surreal, ya know?"

"Squall's up there," Seifer said, drawing their attention. "He's up there and in danger and there is nothing I can do about it."

"Plan?" Fuu asked.

Rai nodded. "Is there anyone we can talk to? Ya know... to find out what's going on?"

Just having his posse there helped Seifer shake off the panic he'd felt at the sight of the Lunar Cry. "Yeah. There is someone... but I don't know where to find him. We're just going to have to look around for him."

"Then let's get going," Raijin reached over and closed the blinds over the window. "I can't stand to look at all those monsters, ya know?"

"AFFIRMATIVE!" Fujin paused and then added, "you'll be okay, won't you Seifer?"

"I'll be fine..." _when Squall's back at my side where he belongs.

* * *

_

After collecting Zell and Quistis, Seifer started off on his hunt for Kiros, determined to find the man, or at least someone representing him, in order to find out just what the hell was happening on the space station. It didn't help that Seifer had no idea where to go or even whether the Vice President was even in the palace at the moment, but Seagill was his best lead at the moment so he was the one Seifer wanted to talk with.

Instead they ran into the third person – almost literally – Seifer remembered seeing in the picture of Laguna. Ward Zabac, the man with the weird harpoon, was a good sport about nearly being run down by SeeD, however.

Possibly because they all knew sign language and Zell declared him the most awesome man alive. It likely wasn't every day that Ward got to be the person with a fan.

'Kiros is at the space center,' Ward signed. 'The Lunar Cry has caused the station to take damage. The escape pods have been jettisoned and are already on their way back to Esthar. Not everyone on board has been accounted for. I do not know if your fellow SeeD are among the missing. Kiros would know, but we will have to wait for him to contact me before you can ask.'

Seifer's stomach twisted a little at the news, or lack there of.

"I'm sure Squall's okay," Quistis said, touching Seifer's arm for a moment. "Try not to worry."

"Easy for you to say," Seifer grumbled, crossing his arms over his chest.

'Squall?' Ward signed curiously.

"Squall Leonhart, Irvine Kinneas, and Selphie Tilmitt are the SeeD who went up to the space station," Zell elaborated.

'Ellone mentioned Squall Leonhart,' Ward told them. 'But she didn't say much. She was anxious to join Laguna on the station.'

"How was Ellone?" Quistis asked. "Did she seem alright after everything she's been going through?"

Seifer restrained a snort of annoyance. Ellone was fine; her continued meddling in the past was evidence enough of that. Squall was the one they should all be worrying about... well, him and Irvine and Selphie.

Tuning out Ward's signing and the questions Quistis and Zell asked him, Seifer found himself pacing the hall agitatedly. Fujin watched him in quiet worry and Raijin... there was a look in the Balambese man's eyes that bespoke plotting.

"Hey, Ward?" Raijin interrupted some inane question Zell was asking about D-District prison. "Is there a training center in this place or maybe a music hall?"

'There are training areas in the palace, but none such as what is said to be in Garden. There is a music hall on the second floor.' Ward's expression was quizzical. 'Why do you ask?'

"Too keyed up," Fujin sighed and shook her head. "Music hall," she added, exchanging a look with Raijin.

"Could you take us to the music hall? We're way too anxious just standing around, ya know?" Raijin glanced at Seifer for a split second and then added, "it'd give us a place to take our minds off the things we can't do anything about, ya know?"

A small smile worked its way onto Seifer's face. He had no idea what he'd done to deserve friends like these two and moments like this reminded him of just how grateful to have them he felt.

'This way,' Ward signed, leading them off towards a nearby staircase.

A few minutes later they were in the music hall; Seifer couldn't help but think of how much Selphie would love the room. It was a huge auditorium with a grand piano on the stage. A few other instruments were set up, though Seifer doubted Laguna Loire played any of them. The goofy man that had been described to him by Squall and the others didn't strike Seifer as the musical type. Though, perhaps Kiros or Ward...

He shrugged off the speculation, not really interested in the answer as he followed Fuu and Rai to the stage. Fujin settled at the piano, her fingers running over the keys reverently before launching into a few scales. Raijin managed to find a drum set over in a corner and pulled it away from some of the instruments cluttered around it, carefully putting those instruments in safely out-of-the-way places closer to backstage. Seifer went straight over to the guitar.

It was gorgeous, an electric model that Seifer didn't recognize – likely an Estharian company that no longer exported outside the country's borders. Glancing over at Ward, who was trying to encourage Quistis and Zell to join the trio on stage, Seifer figured that Ward would let them know if any of the instruments were off limits and went ahead with picking up the guitar, pulling the strap over his neck and right arm, turning on the amp it was plugged into, and tuning the guitar. The sound was better than Garden's small selection of low-quality guitars and the somewhat-nicer guitar that was stashed in Seifer's room back at Garden – he'd saved up for months to buy the guitar and amp second-hand, so he'd managed to get a pretty good bargain.

Suddenly Seifer knew what he wanted for Christmas, and it wasn't a shiny new gunblade. A guitar like this one would be perfect.

"Flyleaf, _Perfect_," Fujin called out.

Seifer nodded and started playing the guitar part of the song; Rai chimed in after a moment with the drums, setting the beat; Fujin followed in with an improvised accompaniment and, much to Quistis, Zell, and Ward's surprise, vocals. It was a little known fact that Fujin had a beautiful voice with perfect pitch and Seifer was amused to watch Zell's jaw hit the floor in shock.

Just like Raijin had planned, Seifer relaxed and simply played, letting Fujin pick the songs. She made him sing a lot, but he enjoyed himself.

He wasn't sure how much time had passed when a familiar voice said, "you SeeD certainly are a multi-talented lot."

"Kiros Seagill?" Quistis asked, every bit as awed sounding as Zell was when he'd introduced himself to Ward earlier.

Seifer snorted softly to himself. If nothing else, Ellone was useful for creating fan clubs for her favorite people.

"SeeD Almasy, I thought you and your team would like to know that SeeD Leonhart successfully escaped the destruction of our space station. The escape pod should be landing a few miles outside of Esthar in a short while," Seagill told him.

Something painful in Seifer's chest loosened a little. He put down the guitar, relief visibly coloring his actions for a moment. Then he made himself put aside his concern for Squall. "What about SeeDs Kinneas and Tilmitt?"

"They are currently unaccounted for," Seagill responded.

"What do you mean, unaccounted for?" Zell demanded. "If they didn't make it into an escape pod then that means they're... dead, right?"

"Not necessarily. They were last sighted in space suits, which afford a few hours of atmosphere for them to survive in." Kiros paused and then added, "they were also near an abandoned air-space craft called the Ragnarok. It was abandoned when monsters from the moon infiltrated it some years ago, but I'm sure that if they can make it into the airlock then they'll be more than a match for those monsters.

"However... I regret to inform you that your friend, SeeD Tilmitt, has become a Sorceress."

"What?" Zell and Quistis seemed suitably shocked and Seifer would have laughed, but Raijin beat him to it.

"Why's that so surprising?" Raijin gave them a perplexed look, despite the amusement in his eyes. "She was possessed by Ultimecia, ya know? That probably called to the magic she inherited... probably Edea's, since she came here to stop being a Sorceress. It's obvious, ya know?"

"Many people will want to force her to give up her magic or be sealed away," Kiros warned them.

Seifer just shrugged his warning off. "Unless they want to start an international incident involving South Trabia and Balamb Garden, then all they can do is whine about it. The rest..." Seifer shrugged and smirked. "Selphie doesn't need Sorceress powers to be kick-ass and she's got more than a few foster siblings willing to stand up on her behalf."

Kiros nodded and smiled, having caught the subtle warning that he'd better not be one of those people who wanted to seal Selphie away. "If you all will follow me, we'll rendezvous with the escape pod with SeeD Leonhart aboard."

* * *

Seeing Squall standing beside the escape pod loosened the rest of the tightness in Seifer's chest. The relief of seeing Squall alright hit him hard; he was fortunate to already be sitting in a land rover or he might have stumbled, fallen, and embarrassed himself. Then Squall saw him and smiled a little.

Seifer found his strength again, jumping out of the car before it came to a complete stop and hurrying over to where the brunet stood. There were other people standing around, but Seifer didn't even notice who they were; his sights were set on Squall and the rest of the world might as well have vanished.

"Seifer," Squall said, moving to help bridge the distance between them.

He wrapped his arms around the shorter teen, inhaling Squall's scent as he buried his face against Squall's soft, messy hair. For a moment they just stood there, ignoring the fact that they had an audience.

"I missed you," Seifer mumbled.

Squall's grip on Seifer's arms tightened in response. "Missed you, too."

Seifer gasped softly in surprise as Squall's mouth pressed against his neck, kissing him softly over his pulse point. Swallowing heavily, Seifer forced himself to ignore the impulse to drag Squall away somewhere – maybe the seemingly empty escape pod – and have his wicked way with him; now really wasn't the time.

Being mature really sucked.

Kissing Squall's temple, Seifer reluctantly put a little distance between them. "What happened up there?"

"Ellone didn't know how to help Selphie any more than Matron did," Squall told him. "Irvine took it well enough... until Selphie woke up. Only it wasn't really her; Ultimecia was controlling her again. She did something to the space station that sent it out of orbit; we would have avoided the Lunar Cry otherwise. She separated from everyone else after that and got into a space suit; Ultimecia was trying to get to something else out there, but I'm not sure what." He paused and glared over at a long-haired brunet that, after a moment, Seifer recognized as Laguna Loire.

"President Loire knows what it was Ultimecia went after, but he wouldn't tell us."

Laguna looked at them sheepishly and shrugged. "It's classified. Sorry."

Seifer almost asked if it was Adel, but he didn't want to spoil the surprise yet. Squall wasn't finished talking yet, anyway.

"Irvine convinced Ellone to send his mind back to the fight against Ultimecia; he was hoping to change things for Selphie. When he woke up... he said that he couldn't do anything except listen to the conversation you had with Ultimecia, which wasn't helpful to him at all."

"I could have told him that," Seifer grumbled. "Ellone's powers greatest use seems to be as a nuisance."

"I think she's come to agree with you on that," Squall told him. "She said she'd given up on changing the past and was reluctant to send Irvine back. He was determined to try, though."

"You've talked with Ultimecia?" Loire demanded, his expression changing instantly from friendly goof to concerned politician. "Not just fought her, but conversed?"

"She possessed my _sister_," Seifer snapped. "What was I supposed to do, chop Selphie's head off? Yeah; I talked to her. I distracted her and tried to get her to give away things she didn't want us to know. None of it did any good, though."

Laguna winced and nodded. "Fair enough."

Squall squeezed Seifer's arm lightly and gave him an amused look. Seifer fought down the urge to lean over the little bit it would take to press his lips against Squall's; he looked far too enticing with his mouth curved in a smile.

"Once the Lunar Cry began, we evacuated into the escape pods. Irvine refused to leave without Selphie, however, and he found a spare space suit in order to go after her." Squall's frustration with Irvine's decision came through loud and clear to Seifer. The brunet had wanted to go with Irvine at the time; he was worried for Selphie just like the rest of them.

"We had something of an adventure ourselves," Seifer said, launching into an explanation about what happened with the Lunatic Pandora.

"Do you think Minion is really on board?" Squall asked when Seifer finished.

"If she wasn't then, she definitely is now," Seifer told him. "There's no way she was the driver, but whoever is could have picked her up somewhere along the way. Dr. Odine seems to think that Galbadia isn't responsible for the Lunatic Pandora's flight, but then he thinks that his voice is wondrous to listen to for hours on end. I don't think his opinion should actually count for much at this point."

Squall snickered softly, the corners of his lips twitching towards another smile. "So you're thinking Galbadia has something to do with the Lunatic Pandora."

Making a face, Seifer relented. "...no. It'd be too convenient to be able to blame everything on Galbadia fucking up. It's more likely that Sorceress Worshipers are responsible. They believe that Sorceresses are avatars for their goddess, so it wouldn't be hard for Ultimecia to convince them to do her biding."

"You're probably right about that, SeeD Almasy," Kiros agreed, giving Seifer a long, penetrating stare. "I'm surprised you've heard about Sorceress Worshipers. They aren't common outside of Esthar."

"They may not be common, but websites promoting their cults are. They're a bunch of nut jobs, but using their sites as references made for an interesting research paper a few years ago," Seifer laughed, recalling the 'pick your topic' assignment he'd aced with amusement.

"Wait... so you're saying that Estharians are responsible for the Lunar Cry?" Quistis asked, finally speaking up. She'd probably been doing the polite thing in letting Seifer and Squall be the ones who talked, giving them some time to hear one another's voices and such.

"Unfortunately, yes," Laguna responded. "The group we think is responsible, however, has declared themselves a separate country from the rest of Esthar. It's not a legal cessation, but the sudden emergence of the Sorceress in Galbadia has kept us from dealing with them properly. Now that we know about Ultimecia... it was likely her influence that has led to this division as a means of distracting us from her overall goal."

"Hey, guys!" Zell interrupted, still standing by the land rovers. "The person on the radio is saying that the Ragnarok is landing to the west with Irvine and Selphie aboard."

"They really did find the Ragnarok?" Laguna sounded impressed. "There were two other craft of the same model as the Ragnarok, but they were decommissioned some time ago... it'll be nice to see it again."

* * *

Seifer was nearly asleep by the time they reached the Ragnarok's landing place. In order to make enough room in the two cars, Squall had wound up on Seifer's lap. Though Squall put up a token resistance, he had quickly relaxed into Seifer's arms. The familiar weight of Squall on his lap and being surrounded by Squall's scent lulled Seifer closer to reclaiming the sleep he'd lost out on the night before.

Though... Seifer's mind never quite left the 'idle speculation' stage of falling asleep and he wound up wondering what it was about Squall that could have him hot and bothered one minute and so relaxed he was falling asleep the next.

"Seifer, we're here." Squall's fingers were idly running through Seifer's hair. "Loire's dealing with the representatives of the Sorceress Memorial, who want to seal Selphie away..."

Opening his eyes and blinking owlishly, Seifer tightened his hold on Squall's waist. "That thing Ultimecia was looking for in space... I think it was Sorceress Adel. Matron told us that Adel is still alive and since Esthar has the technology to 'seal' Sorceresses..."

Squall nodded. "Makes sense. That probably means the whole point of the Lunar Cry was to bring Adel back to the planet as Ultimecia's next host. She must not have been confident of her ability to control Selphie for some reason." Squall pressed his mouth against Seifer's in a slow, needy kiss. "I missed you," Squall mumbled, panting for breath when they parted. Then he slid out of Seifer's arms and off his lap. "We need to go with the others."

"Mmmhmmm..." Seifer nodded and followed Squall out of the car. Looking up, he got his first good look at the Ragnarok. It was huge, towering above them like some sort of dragon. Grinning up at it, Seifer declared, "that is so cool."

"Yeah... it really is," Squall agreed, staring at Seifer. "Selphie landed it."

"I bet she already loves this thing as much as Irvine loves his hat," Seifer speculated.

Squall just laughed and leaned into Seifer's touch when he slung an arm around the brunet's shoulders.

* * *

Seeing Selphie awake and bouncy again was absolutely wonderful, though there was something new in her eyes. Flecks of golden power blended with her typically forest green eyes in a manner that clearly disturbed Loire, Seagill, and Zabac, but they didn't say anything about it. Selphie also turned out to be a natural pilot and she was enjoying getting to fly her new toy, Irvine at her side and utterly awestruck by the fact that his girlfriend was not only out of her coma but had confessed her love for him.

All was happy in their world, so Seifer convinced Squall to sneak off with him to one of the lower decks. They found a room with a huge observation window - though the room itself was devoid of furnishings - and ended up standing together in front of the window. Seifer's arms were wrapped around Squall's waist with the brunet's back pressed firmly against Seifer's chest.

The temptation to do more than just stand there observing the scenery was too much to resist, however. Seifer turned his head to the side and started nibbling at Squall's ear, enjoying the sharp intake of breath that greeted his actions and the way Squall squirmed against him slightly, his ass brushing tantalizingly against Seifer's crotch. "I don't know if its because I was in a new place or because you weren't there, but I couldn't sleep at all last night," Seifer murmured, still nipping and sucking at Squall's earlobe in between words and phrases. "I think it's because you weren't there."

"I was preoccupied thinking of you too," Squall admitted, shifting in Seifer's embrace in order to turn and face the blonde. "I should have known sooner, but I didn't understand what I was feeling until I'd gone too far away to come back easily. I love you, Seifer."

"W-what?" Seifer couldn't believe his ears. Squall always took forever to make important decisions; he had to think the pros and cons over in minute detail. That he'd jumped into a relationship with Seifer with so little introspection had been understandable given that he'd wound up dating Rinoa in the other timeline (Hyne knew everything happened as spur of the moment decisions in that girl's world), but this... just two days after Seifer had confessed the depth of his own feelings and Squall was admitting to fully reciprocating those feelings. That wasn't the sort of thing Squall did on a whim; he meant those words.

"I love you," Squall repeated, tilting his face up slightly in order to see directly into Seifer's eyes.

A soft growl worked it's way up Seifer's throat as he pressed Squall back against the window, molding his lips to Squall's and invading the delicious cavern of Squall's mouth with his tongue. "I love you too," Seifer said, breaking away for a moment to speak and to breathe before leaning back in to continue his assault on Squall's mouth. His hands joined in, roving over Squall's shoulders in order to remove the fur-lined bomber jacket and the slipping beneath Squall's tank in order to run up and down Squall's sides and back.

Squall broke the kiss, gasping for breath. "It... it turns you on to hear me say things like that," he teased breathlessly, his eyes bright with a combination of love and lust.

"Yes, it does," Seifer responded, barely recognizing the rough voice as his own even as Squall shivered against him in anticipation.

Latching onto the hem of Squall's shirt, Seifer yanked the garment up over Squall's head, the shorter teen's arms raising immediately to make it easier to toss the clothing aside. Once the shirt was out of his way, Seifer lowered his mouth to Squall's neck, leaving a trail of kisses and hickeys down to Squall's chest where he found a sensitive spot he hadn't taken advantage of before, near Squall's shoulder joint. Nipping and licking and sucking at the sensitive skin, Seifer drank in the sounds of Squall's moans and the feel of Squall's body jerking against his. Trapped between Seifer and the cool window, Squall was desperate for traction and lacking it completely.

Perhaps that was why it came as such a surprise when Squall managed to unbalance Seifer, pushing him down onto the hard floor beneath them.

Somewhere along the way, Seifer had already lost his jacket. He didn't remember taking it off, but it was clearly gone by the time he hit the floor. The pain of falling to the ground disappeared beneath the press of Squall's clothed arousal against Seifer's own trapped cock and the feeling of nimble fingers deftly unbuttoning Seifer's shirt. Soon Seifer's shirt joined his missing jacket, strewn across the room without care. They were fixated on more important things, such was the way Squall's fingers explored Seifer's ribs and collar bones and Squall's mouth began detailing the definition of Seifer's abdominal muscles.

Seifer moaned and reached out, placing his hands on Squall's hips to hold the exquisite feeling of their erections pressing against each other in place. Squall smirked at Seifer, pulling back for a moment to observe just how fast Seifer was falling apart under his ministrations. Taking in the brunet's half naked appearance - the way his blue-gray eyes were blown so wide they were practically black, the disheveled appearance of his hair, his kiss-bruised lips, the light sheen of sweat that Seifer longed to taste, the hickeys that Squall's jacket would definitely fail to hide... Seifer felt overwhelmed.

"Hyne..." he reached up, cupping the side of Squall's face. "You're so beautiful. I know I don't deserve you, but I intend to keep you anyway."

A puzzled expression clouded Squall's face for a moment before he leaned in, vigorously kissing Seifer, his tongue swirling around in Seifer's mouth in an effort to savor the taste. "You're so strange," Squall murmured, pulling back from the kiss and returning to driving Seifer wild.

Avoiding Seifer nipples, which he normally favored with the most attention, Squall moved even lower. His tongue dipped into Seifer's belly-button for a moment, but it was enough to cause Seifer to cry out, his body arching beneath Squall as pleasure crashed through him. "Ah... Squall!" Seifer moaned and rocked his hips, desperate for more friction... desperate to come. But Squall ignored the cues from Seifer's actions, instead moving his mouth northward and planting kisses around the erect pink nubs that ached for Squall's attention every bit as much as Seifer's hardened erection.

Seifer was so distracted by Squall's mouth that he almost didn't notice what Squall's hands were doing until his pants were removed and his cock was being freed from his boxers. The feeling of the cool air against his penis helped cool Seifer's libido enough that he could think rationally again. But Squall stole that away again moments later when he began placing open mouthed kisses against Seifer's thighs, ignoring Seifer's engorged organ completely. Seifer writhed on the floor, not entirely aware of the words that came out of his mouth or the lack of coherency with which he tried to beg Squall to let him come.

"You tell me I'm beautiful," Squall murmured, his words cutting through to the part of Seifer that wasn't lost to desire. "You don't see yourself."

Then there was nothing. Still painfully aroused, it took Seifer a few moments to collect himself enough to prop up on his elbows. What he saw nearly undid him completely.

Head thrown back, eyes squeezed closed, mouth parted in a soundless cry of pleasure... Squall looked good enough to devour. But what really drove Seifer wild was the sight of Squall's cock leaking pre-cum as one side of it rubbed against Squall's arm as he reached down to press his own fingers inside himself.

"Fuck... Squall..." Seifer panted. If he hadn't been hard already, the sight would have made him instantly erect.

"That's the... ahhn!" Squall's body stiffened and he moaned wantonly as his fingers pressed against the bundle of nerves deep inside himself that sent spikes of pleasure coursing through him. "Oh... ahh..." his body lurched precariously for a moment as, unable to resist, Squall pressed against the nerves again. Reluctantly removing his fingers from inside himself, Squall leaned forward and engulfed Seifer with his mouth, licking and sucking and coating Seifer's erection with saliva since they lacked any lube.

Seifer resolved, in a moment of clarity that was lost moments later, that he'd have to start carrying lube around with him just in case they needed it for moments of hot, spontaneous sex.

"Fuck me," Squall demanded, once his mouth released Seifer with a wet pop.

Not needing to be told twice, Seifer sat up, moving Squall to the floor in the process. "Without lube, this is really going to hurt," Seifer warned before pressing Squall's knees up against the brunet's chest and slowly guiding himself past the tight ring of muscle of Squall's entrance. Squall hissed in pain, but Seifer didn't even consider stopping. He kept sliding into Squall until he was fully encased inside. "Fuck, fuck..." Seifer felt like he was drowning in Squall; everything felt so good.

Slowly he began to thrust, picking up speed when he heard Squall cry out in pleasure and growing more erratic at the sound of Squall's demands that he go harder. Then they were crying out together, collapsing in a tangle of limbs.

Squall curled against Seifer's chest, panting softly and shaking a little from exertion as well as the sudden realization that the room was kind of cold. Reaching around, Seifer managed to find his coat and draped it over them so that they wouldn't have to get up quite yet.

"I don't suppose there are any showers in this place," Seifer muttered. "If we go back up there without cleaning up at least a little..."

"It'll be even more obvious we came down here to have sex?" Squall mumbled, in amusement.

"Yeah..." Seifer grinned impishly, tightening his hold on Squall. "I love you."

"Love you, too..." was the sleepy reply.

Heart doing a weird little 'flip-flop' at Squall's words, Seifer let his eyes close for a few moments. Squall was just full of all sorts of surprises...

* * *

There was a shower and it even worked. Squall was unsteady on his feet; they had a healing potion, but Squall insisted that they wait until after the shower to use it. Seifer was fine with that, however, and took great pleasure in getting to hold up the brunet, who was determined to ignore the pain his ass was in. He'd asked for Seifer to go harder, after all, and this was the inevitable consequence. Afterwards, Squall used the potion himself, but he drank it, allowing the effects to kick in slowly.

Seifer pouted as they dressed; he'd been hoping for more sex. Squall wanted them to return to the bridge sooner rather than later.

With damp hair and rumpled clothes, Seifer and Squall returned to the bridge in time to watch Selphie pull off a flawless landing.

"Aww, yeah!" Selphie exclaimed as she deactivated the flight control console. "Who's the sexy cowgirl now, huh?"

"You are," Irvine responded brightly, dropping his hat onto her had and grabbing her hands to pull her out of the pilot's seat. "You're the sexiest cowgirl ever," he declared, kissing her gently.

"If someone dies of a sugar overdose, I'm holding you two responsible," Seifer spoke up, smirking as everyone turned to stare at him and Squall. Squall just face palmed.

"Oh, hey, the showers on this thing work!" Selphie bounced, gesturing to Seifer and Squall... or more specifically, their still noticeably damp hair. "Did you two figure that out together?" she added, waggling her eyebrows suggestively.

"Where are we?" Squall asked, choosing to pretend Selphie hadn't spoken.

"Orphanage," Zell answered. "Selphie wanted to see it since she was comatose the last time we were here."

"It's so different..." Selphie sounded sad, her nose pressed against the glass of the window. "So broken down. I know its silly, but I didn't think it would be so changed." She paused and then added, "it's so much smaller."

"You aren't that much taller now than when we lived here," Seifer teased gently, trying to raise her spirits. "It must seem that way since we're on the Ragnarok."

"Hey!" Selphie pouted, trying to hid a smile, as she whirled around to face the blonde gunblader. "I'm not _that _vertically challenged, thank you very much!"

"Of course not..."

"Oh... you..." Selphie tried to fume, but she looked far too happy. Linking her arm with Irvine, she said, "I want to explore. Come with me, Irvy?"

"Of course," the cowboy drawled, escorting Selphie out the door.

"Do you guys think she'll be okay?" Zell asked once the door shut.

"Weighted down," Fujin agreed.

"She can probably feel the weight of the magic pressing against her mind," Kiros observed. "Your friend will need a Knight soon or she'll be driven mad by the power."

"SeeD Kinneas seems to care about her deeply." Laguna grinned, clearly enjoying being around Squall and everyone his son had grown up around. "I bet he'll offer to be her Knight soon enough."

"Assuming he doesn't have any innate magic of his own, then all she'll have to do is accept his offer and form the bond between them," Kiros added.

"Innate magic..." Seifer echoed slowly. "What do you mean by that?"

"Well... as you know, some women are Blue Witches," Kiros began to explain.

"Like Trepe and Cadell," Raijin spoke up. "They're both powerful Blue Witches, ya know? It's just too bad Minion's been forced to become Ultimecia's Knight, ya know?"

"She's not a Knight," Kiros contradicted. "That's what I'm getting to. It's a lot rarer, but there are people - men and women alike - who are able to cast certain types of magic without having to be junctioned or use tech the way its done in Galbadia and Esthar. Anyone with innate magic, regardless of whether they are a Blue Witch or a caster, are unable to become a Knight. They can pledge their loyalty to a Sorceress and protect her, but they cannot bond to her. A Sorceress needs to be bonded to her Knight, so that he can share the burden of her power. Otherwise the magic will become too much for her and... the Sorceress becomes the most dangerous fruit cake on the planet."

"It's always been my theory that Ellone is a caster and that her power is tied to time magic. But no one has ever heard of time magic before her, so..." Laguna shrugged.

"Fire magic," Fujin said, tapping Seifer on the shoulder.

"That's right," Raijin agreed. "You've always been able to cast fire spells even while unjunctioned, ya know?"

"Yeah, Rai, I think I've noticed that," Seifer deadpanned, forcing down the pain that welled up inside of him. He no longer desired to be a Knight, but learning that the dream he'd held dear for so long never had a chance of coming true still hurt. He had Squall now, which made reality better than even his wildest dreams, and it wasn't like he hadn't already figured out that Ultimecia had been using him in the other timeline...

Seifer felt Squall's hand on his shoulder, steadying him. "That explains Ultimecia's choices in Knights, then. She wanted someone that she couldn't accidentally form a real bond with. McCormick must have had the ability to cast magic without junctioning and Minion is, obviously, a Blue Witch."

"But you were her first choice, Seifer," Zell mused. "Having Minion means she's got a Knight - fake Knight... whatever - with powerful magic of her own, but if Ultimecia had managed to control you then she'd have a psychological advantage over the rest of us."

"She wanted to take you as her Knight?" Kiros interrupted in a worried tone.

'And failed?' Ward added, looking impressed.

"I've never heard of anyone who could resist the control of a Sorceress," Laguna added.

"I'm not sure how I did." Seifer shrugged.

"What's important is that it pissed her off when she failed," Quistis declared, her eyes growing distant as though she were thinking of Minion again.

'Way to look on the bright side.'

Seifer smirked; Ward really was pretty cool.

"Tour," Fujin declared, dragging Raijin off to go see Orphanage.

"I'm going to take a better look at the orphanage," Zell said, heading for the exit himself. "Matron will probably want to start it up again now that she's no longer a Sorceress."

"True," Quistis agreed. "I'll go with you. If we can make a list of what needs fixing for her, then we can help her fix the place up faster. I remember that a lot of the wood was rotted when we were here the other day... and the foundation needs a lot of work..." they disappeared out into the corridor.

"I'm sure that the three of you need to contact your subordinates in Esthar to find out where Ellone landed," Squall said quietly, once only he and Seifer were left in the room with the Estharian trio. "I'd appreciate it if you'd keep us updated on her situation." He paused and then added coldly, "I'd like to be kept informed about the situation with Adel as well. We already have one insane Sorceress causing us trouble. We don't need two of them, especially if they were to work together." Squall smirked at the startled gazes he received from Laguna, Kiros, and Ward. Turning away, he too left the room.

"Squall hates being kept in the dark almost as much as he hates being lied to," Seifer told them in amusement, walking out after Squall.

He followed the brunet quietly all the way out of the Ragnarok and, once they reached the loading ramp, which Selphie and Irvine must have lowered when they left, he asked, "have you decided whether you're going to let Loire know you've already figured out he's your father?" He kept his voice quiet, though he wasn't really worried about being overheard.

"When this is over and we don't have to worry about Ultimecia anymore," Squall muttered, leaning against Seifer's shoulder and chest. "Then I'll talk to him about it... with you there."

Seifer slid his arms around Squall and drew him closer. Pressing a kiss to Squall's forehead, Seifer changed the subject. "We never did get to have our spar the last time we were here."

"Hmmm..." Squall pulled back, a light in his eyes that spoke of excitement. "We should remedy that."

"Usual rules?"

"Not that you ever follow them," Squall responded with a chuckle. "Where?"

"How about the field we used to play in as kids?" They played there as children, pretending to be Knights with swords made of sticks; returning as lovers to spar with real gunblades had a symmetry to it that appealed to Seifer.

The appeal was not lost on Squall. "Sounds good."

They made their way out to the field, which was now covered in blooming wildflowers. It smelled like a flower shop and Seifer almost felt bad that they would soon be trampling so many of them. But then they each unsheathed their weapons, preparing to fight.

Squall struck first, surprising Seifer, though not enough for the blonde to miss out on blocking the attack. Seifer responded with a swipe at Squall's feet, which Squall leapt over, stumbling slightly on the uneven ground as he landed.

"You've become much more unpredictable lately," Seifer told Squall as he feinted to the left and then struck at Squall's right shoulder.

As expected, Squall easily blocked Seifer's strike, the air ringing with the sound of their gunblades clashing. "Am I?" Squall parried another attack from Seifer. "I suppose I have become somewhat impulsive. I've learned an important lesson recently. When I want something," Squall punctuated his words by pressing the attack, searching for an advantage, "I can't just sit around letting my thoughts go in circles. I wind up miserable that way." Locking their gunblades between them, Squall pushed his way forward so that there was barely enough room for the blades without either of them being cut on the weapons. "Instead, I should act on what I want," he leaned his face up, stretching as best he could to press a quick kiss against Seifer's mouth before darting away.

Seifer shook his head, clearing away the fuzzy feelings that overcame him at Squall's actions. He swatted at Squall's head with Hyperion, but the brunet simply ducked and grinned. "That's not fair, distracting me in such a manner," Seifer complained.

"It's just as fair as all the times you've used magic," Squall shot back. He attacked again, but this time there was a loud cracking sound that accompanied the clang of their blades. Squall drew back his Revolver and swore viciously.

Shoving the end of Hyperion into the ground, Seifer walked up to Squall to see what was wrong and wound up swearing himself. Squall's gunblade had a crack in the blade near the hilt. "I'll need to find a new gunblade before we do anything else." The look on Squall's face said he wanted to kill something.

Recalling the glowing blue blade Squall had in the other timeline, Seifer wondered just where they'd find Lion Heart this time around. "I'm sure we can find a better model."

"Maybe." Squall frowned, sheathing the Revolver. "This was the best available in Balamb the revolver style and they stock the best equipment because of Garden."

"There's always Esthar; perhaps they've got something better."

"I guess..."

Seifer retrieved Hyperion. "That leaves us with another draw, I suppose." Sheathing his blade, Seifer added, "you could always ask Loire. I'm sure he'd do just about anything to be in your good graces before telling you 'Squall... I am your father.'"

Squall snorted, amused despite himself. "Probably. I _liked _this gunblade, though."

"You could have it repaired, but the blade would still be weakened. You could always get another of the same model," Seifer suggested.

"No... I think I'll try to find something better first. This one lasted a couple of years, but that was with me using it almost exclusively for training. I'll need something that will last longer under real battle conditions." He sighed. "I'll ask Loire to recommend a weapons shop in Esthar."

A/N - As I said above, writing this chapter was a long, drawn out process of fighting my computer for the right to keep what I'd written without something crashing on me. I've run a virus scan already, and it came up clean... so now I'm going to see about updating drivers and such. Perhaps that will solve my woes. Then I'll run another virus scan, just to be sure.


	22. Chapter 19

Disclaimer – I don't own _FFVIII_, because this is how things would have gone in the game if I did.

A/N - Exams are over. Exams are evil. Exams make me act crazy... my roommate will confirm that and so will Kit. I think I may have irritated Kit... or really, really amused her.

_Chapter 19_

Seifer rand his fingers slowly through Squall's hair, not wanting to wake the brunet. Hours earlier, after letting the Estharian contingent contact their country, Squall had summoned Garden back to Orphanage from FH and they'd spent the rest of the day exploring Orphanage while waiting for the flying academy to show up.

Garden arrived late that evening and Seifer had fallen into bed with Squall, the two of them asleep almost as soon as their heads hit the pillows. Seifer wasn't sure what time he'd awoken, but the sight of Squall was simply too enticing. Now that he was awake, he couldn't tear his eyes away.

"Mmmm..." Squall moaned softly in his sleep, his brow furrowing slightly.

Tracing along the side of Squall's face, Seifer let his fingers drift lower. He brushed lightly over Squall's neck and shoulder, his touch drifting to run over the brunet's side towards his hip. Moaning again in his sleep as a response, Squall pressed closer to Seifer and his cock, hardened by his dreams or Seifer's touch or maybe both, rubbed against Seifer's thigh for a moment before stilling. "Seifer..." Squall mumbled softly, his face pressing against the blonde's shoulder.

A wicked idea made it's way into Seifer mind and he eased away from Squall's sleeping form, smirking when a soft whimper made the brunet's subconscious displeasure known. Seifer made his way down the bed and, as gently as possible, slid Squall's boxers off. Settling between Squall's legs, Seifer licked the tip of Squall's hardened penis.

"Unnn..." Squall's eyes didn't open, but his body reacted instinctively to Seifer's action. His lithe body twisted slightly and his hands clenched, fisting the bedsheets. When Seifer repeated his action, swirling his tongue around the tip this time, he was rewarded with an even louder moan, though Squall still did not wake.

Smiling deviously, Seifer took Squall's erection into his mouth completely and began to suck, bobbing his head a little to start a rhythm.

"F-fuck, Seifer... what..." Squall sounded groggy, though he was definitely awake now. Seifer started humming, the vibrations against the sensitive flesh of his engorged cock rendering Squall incapable of finishing his sentence. Instead, Squall's head fell back against the pillows as his body arched, his hips jerking against Seifer's hands.

Refusing to give into the brunet's urging to go faster, Seifer slowly brought Squall to the edge before letting him come.

Moments after freeing Squall's now softened organ from his mouth, Seifer found himself being dragged up to meet Squall's lips with his own. He gasped when Squall nipped at his lower lip, Squall's tongue immediately invading Seifer's mouth in a demanding kiss. They were both dizzy when they were forced to pull away to draw much needed oxygen into their lungs.

"What brought that on?" Squall finally asked, when he had enough control of himself to speak without stuttering.

"You looked so beautiful," Seifer answered honestly. "You also said my name in your sleep... and were pressed against me, half hard... what's a guy to do? I wanted to watch you come."

Blue eyes regarded Seifer hungrily, looking up and down the blonde's body with undisguisable lust. "I want to watch you come," Squall echoed, rolling them over so that he was straddling Seifer's hips.

The door chimed and Seifer let out a distinctly annoyed huff. "It's six fucking thirty..."

"Almost seven, actually," Squall noted, looking at the clock.

"Fine," Seifer groaned in frustration as the door chimed again. "It's seven fucking o'clock in the morning. What the hell could anyone want from us right now?"

"Stay here," Squall told him, leaning over to suck at Seifer's neck for a moment, nipping lightly before getting off the bed. He pulled on the boxers that Seifer had relieved him of not that long ago and then pulled the covers over Seifer. Amusement tinged Squall's lips when the blankets tented slightly over the cause of Seifer's frustration.

The door chimed a third time as Squall pulled on a robe on his way to the door. "What is it, Zell?" Squall asked when the door slid open to reveal the martial artist standing there.

"Uh... well, there's been some sort of development in Esthar regarding Ultimecia; Laguna, Ward, and Kiros say they've got a plan that they want to hire us to complete and Xu wants us to get started on it right away," Zell responded, running a hand nervously through his already messy hair. He'd clearly only woken up recently too; Seifer couldn't see the ridiculous 'chocobo-tailfeather' look that Zell loved to gel his hair into. "Apparently Odine called at some insane hour and told Laguna a few things that... gave him an idea. Or maybe it was Kiros' idea... or possibly Ward's; they weren't very clear on that part. Anyway, Xu sent me to get you..."

"At seven in the morning," Squall responded, his voice flat. "I suppose that deciding on a plan to defeat Ultimecia is more important than another half-hour of sleep," he glanced back at Seifer, who had a sinking feeling that he was going to be taking a cold shower alone once the door closed.

"We'll be there shortly," Squall responded. "What conference room are we using?"

"Uh... conference room A, I think..."

Seifer rolled his eyes. Just why Zell was playing messenger, Seifer had no idea. Though, at least Xu being awake at this hour was understandable.

Any transmission that was routed into Garden through diplomatic frequencies were all sent to the Headmistress and then rerouted to whoever the caller was actually trying to reach. He was fairly certain this was going to change so that Squall, as the Commander, would have to deal with the calls. Until then, though, Seifer was grateful they'd been allowed to sleep through Odine's psychotic babbling thus far. It was probably too much to hope that they'd continue to luck out.

"So, uh... yeah..." Zell was glancing nervously between Seifer and Squall. "I'll just go, then..." The door slid shut, blocking out Zell's rather entertainingly freaked out expression.

"He's acting particularly weird," Squall muttered, turning to face Seifer.

"He probably thinks he interrupted us in the middle of sex," Seifer responded. "Not to surprising, since he did."

Squall snorted softly in amusement and ditched the robe before clambering back onto the bed. He reached beneath the covers and Seifer's boxers in order to wrap his fingers around Seifer's waning erection. Seifer felt himself grow harder as Squall started pumping his fist and he fell back against the pillows, moaning lowly.

"I told you," Squall's voice was rough and possessive. The sound alone was enough to cause Seifer to feel as though heat were coursing along his nerves to coil around the base of his spine. "I want to see you come," Squall murmured the words in Seifer's ears, his free hand trailing lightly over Seifer's chest, nails scratching across Seifer's nipples.

Seifer arched into Squall's touch, his hips bucking against Squall's hand. "Squall..." he grinned, reaching out to draw in Squall's face. Pulling the brunet into a kiss, Seifer moaned as he felt Squall pick up the pace slightly. This was _way_ better than a cold shower...

* * *

Showered and dressed, Seifer followed Squall towards the elevator. Xu might not be entirely appreciative of his presence at the meeting when they arrived, but Squall hadn't objected to Seifer deciding to tag along.

"Seifer?"

Turning at the sound of Matron's voice, Seifer came to a halt in surprise. He hadn't realized that she'd already returned to Garden by the time it left FH the day before.

"Matron?" Seifer responded. Really, why were so many people who ought to be sleeping awake at this Hyne-forsaken hour? It was a little after seven-thirty and a little more understandable that people were milling around. The 'work-day' started at eight thirty, but that was for SeeD. The concept of Garden may have been Matron's baby, but she was definitely no SeeD.

"I... I was hoping to talk to you," she said, looking uncertainly between him and Squall. "I realize this is probably a bad time..."

Glancing at Squall, Seifer tried to convey his hopes of skipping this meeting in favor of talking with Matron. It seemed to work because Squall nodded slowly. "I'll find you when the meeting is over," Squall promised, walking off.

"Now is fine, Matron," Seifer told her. "Why don't we go to the quad? It should be empty right now."

"That sounds perfect." She looked relieved.

It didn't take them long to find a bench in the quad to settle on. Seifer waited a moment to let Matron start talking, but she started and stopped a few times. She seemed far too keyed up to know how to start.

"Matron? What happened to you in Esthar?" Seifer figured that was as good a place as any to start.

"Dr. Odine was able to trigger the part of the Sorceress powers that causes them to pass on from one Sorceress to the next. There was a woman at the lab who had volunteered to take on my powers, but they seemed to evaporate instead," Matron told him. "I suppose that, since Selphie was possessed by Ultimecia and... well, my powers were drawn to her. Though, I suppose I should get used to referring to them as Selphie's powers now."

Edea took a deep breath and then finally began to touch upon the topic she'd wanted to speak with him about. "Do you remember the day after Ellone left the Orphanage?"

"Yeah... she left in the middle of the night on some ship... the White SeeD's ship, I guess," Seifer gazed off into the distance as the memory of that day came back to him. "Squall wouldn't believe she was gone at first. He was so certain that she wouldn't leave without telling him goodbye. I'd never seen him cry before..." Seifer trailed off and shook his head, recalling the tight feeling in his chest that Squall's tears had caused him all those years ago. Even then, though they'd been too young to really be in love, Squall had been the most important person in Seifer's life.

No one, least of all him, had understood that at the time, though. All he'd known was that when Squall felt bad, so did he. But he didn't know how to explain that to the others and he'd run off to the beach in an attempt to make the pain stop by being alone. It didn't help that Quistis went into bossy-mode and threatened all sorts of things if Seifer were mean or insensitive towards Squall's feelings; the others had rallied around her and, in their attempt to protect Squall, acted in an unthinkingly cruel manner towards Seifer.

"He ran off to look for her in the flower field," Seifer finished lamely, leaving out all the things that Matron hadn't seen that day, too preoccupied with Squall to notice anything else that might be happening.

"Yes... but that day is also where this story began. Before I could leave the orphanage's front yard, a young man appeared in front of me along with a Sorceress. The Sorceress was dying and the young man sought to protect me from her, in fear that the Sorceress would seek to hurt me." Matron paused, her own expression growing distant. "I was already a Sorceress and I did not want any of my children to bear the burden of magic.

"I received her powers and sought to hide any evidence of her short appearance there. I knew that if any of the children knew she'd been there then she would become an entity of fear for them. The powers I received from that Sorceress... are what drew Ultimecia to me. Her powers were drawn to mine... her life in the future, connected to mine in the past."

"You received Ultimecia's powers," Seifer speculated. "If we can beat her, then your past will remain unchanged, I suppose. Who was the young man? Squall?"

"Yes... how did you...?"

"Everyone has always shown an unnaturally high degree of obsession with Squall," Seifer told her. "At least I have an excuse; I'm in love with him. Now it makes a little more sense why you and Kramer have always been so fixated on him, though.

"But even before that... you should have sent him and Ellone to Loire in Esthar. I'm glad you didn't... for obvious and selfish reasons, but why didn't you?"

"At first, I didn't know how to contact Laguna," Edea told him. "Eventually I learned that he wasn't even looking for them. I just... decided to leave things as they were. I wonder now if perhaps I made a mistake in doing so. Laguna is a kind man, but I can tell he is furious with me for withholding his children from him."

Seifer sighed and shook his head slowly. "So... we're going to have to go through with the time compression, aren't we? That's the only way Ultimecia can die in the past and Squall can do the time warp... he... he doesn't get stuck back then, does he? There aren't..." A panicky feeling clamped around his chest. He didn't want Squall to have to spend thirteen years alone, growing older... maybe finding someone else to love... someone better than Seifer...

"No, Seifer, Squall was able to return to the time compression field before it collapsed. I have no doubt that, when the time comes, he will arrive on the other side safe with you." Edea smiled, patting Seifer's shoulder in an attempt to ease the young man's worries.

"Right..." Seifer breathed in slowly and let it out in an equally slow manner. It was hard to dismiss his fears, though. He'd spent his life doing his best and helping others, but it was hard not to get scared and pissed off when so many people told him that he was a fuck-up so often. It was even harder when he knew how close he'd come to proving them right.

He just... didn't want to imagine life without Squall there. Not having Squall to talk to, to fall asleep with, to gain strength from and feel safe with... and, okay, the sudden deficit of sex would suck a lot too.

Seifer shuddered and, ignoring the odd look Matron gave him, shoved his fears aside. "You're not... upset he and I are together, are you?"

"No, Seifer. I'm happy for the two of you... and perhaps a bit jealous of what you have together." She sighed and wrapped her hands around her knees. "Cid and I... for years, we've barely talked, barely seen each other. He was always here at Garden and I... was everywhere else. Traveling with the White SeeD, visiting other countries, gathering orphans and sending them either to new homes or to the Gardens... now we're strangers.

"Even before that, so soon after our wedding, he was off to war against Esthar. I was... more naïve then and thought that adding another Sorceress to the mix would be a bad idea. I refused to fight and made him promise not to reveal my abilities. Maybe I was just too afraid to admit that I was a coward."

"Matron, you are not a coward," Seifer objected.

"Are you so sure? I think that I am. I'm still afraid to fight... I've spent years afraid to face the truth that my marriage has fallen apart. I was afraid to face my children who were forgetting me because of my choices. I convinced Ellone to run and hide and follow in my footsteps. Even Garden was created from my fear that some nameless threat in the future would need to be destroyed. What if, in creating Garden, I am responsible for Ultimecia's creation?

"What if her existence as an evil Sorceress is wholly dependent upon the existence of Garden?"

The idea was chilling. _What if Ultimecia was created by Garden? _ Seifer shook his head; he couldn't believe it. "People make their own choices, Matron," Seifer told her. "You can't take responsibility for the choices other people make. It's... arrogant. The only bad choices that are your fault are the ones you make yourself.

"Whatever led Ultimecia to decide to compress time, she was the one... or will be the one... whatever, who chooses that. Not you and not Garden. As for the rest of what you've said... if you want to stop being afraid, then you've got to stop running from the things that scare you. If you turn and face them, you'll find that there's a lot of us who'll stand at your side, okay?"

Edea smiled and moved her hand to his shoulder, squeezing tightly for a moment. "How did I ever get so lucky as to have a son like you?"

Seifer shook his head. "Careful, Matron. You'll feed my ego if you aren't and then there'll be room for nothing else in Garden." He grinned as she laughed.

Mission accomplished...

* * *

The conference room was actually rather nice. The walls were an earthy shade of brown that didn't blind people when the lights came on after doing something that required darkness and the chairs were comfortable enough without being the sort that would let the person sitting on them nod off to sleep. Mostly, though, Seifer liked that he got to sit by Squall near the head of the table.

Though, Squall had firmly nixed the idea of playing footsie by stamping pretty hard on Seifer's foot when the blonde gave it a try. Deciding that he liked his foot in an unbroken state, Seifer retreated.

"The mission," Squall told the gang – Seifer, Zell, Quistis, Irvine, and Selphie –, "we have been hired for is to defeat Ultimecia completely. President Loire and Vice President Seagil, with input from Dr. Odine, have devised a plan they think will work.

"As we all know, Ultimecia is only manipulating people in the present. She actually exists at some point in the future, making a confrontation against her impossible at this moment." Squall paused, frowning slightly. "Her ability to possess people in the past stems from a machine that Odine invented during Adel's reign in Esthar and then hid. He refuses to let anyone know where the machine is because he claims doing so will further destabilize the time line."

"Bullshit," Zell grumbled.

"This may sound strange, but I agree with Dincht," Seifer spoke up. "The guy just doesn't want his toys getting smashed."

"Probably," Squall agreed, "but no one has the time or patience required to argue the point with him.

"Ultimecia learned of Ellone because of the machine, which Odine named Junction-Machine Ellone."

"Creative," Irvine drawled, his tone implying the exact opposite.

Squall just gave the cowboy a look that said 'shut up' and returned to explaining the mission. "Currently, the only way to defeat Ultimecia is by reaching her in the future. Her goal is to compress all of time into a single instant where she would be able to change history to suit her purposes, or whatever it is she wants. If we let her compress time, but manage to use her compression spell to reach her in the future, then we can fight her in person instead of through another proxy like Matron."

Nodding slowly, Quistis asked, "but how does she compress time? Clearly just traveling into the past is not enough."

"It seems that she can't travel far enough back with just the machine at her disposal," Squall responded. "That's why she needs Ellone. If she can trigger a big enough paradox, then time should compress long enough for her to achieve her goals. But if we can distract her and defeat her, she'll fail without hope of a second chance."

"So... what you're saying is that we're gonna have to let Ultimecia get to Ellone?" Selphie asked. "She... she won't possess Ellone, will she? It's... it isn't pleasant, having that woman in your head; she doesn't care for boundaries. That Matron hid so much from Ultimecia for so long is actually pretty impressive."

"Ultimecia can only directly possess Sorceresses," Squall told Selphie. He looked away from her, an uncomfortable expression in his eyes. "You and Adel are the only known Sorceresses in our time at the moment. There are probably others who are hidden, but they aren't powerful enough to attract Ultimecia's notice. Ultimecia is currently possessing Adel, but... if the two of them work together in our time, they'll be unstoppable."

"Adel was sealed away, right?" Seifer asked. "So we've got some time before the uber-bitch wakes up all the way."

Squall nodded. "I'm sorry, Selphie... we'll need you to allow Ultimecia to possess you again."

"No!" Irvine objected, standing up from his chair, hands slamming against the table. "That's too much to ask..."

"No, it isn't too much." Selphie smiled up at Irvine, fear obvious in her eyes. "The whole world is at stake. All of history is at stake. I can do this and I will. This is something you can't protect me from, Irvine. I choose this."

"Selphie..." Irvine sighed, reluctantly sitting back down. "I just want you to feel safe."

"I know." She took the closer of his hands into hers and held it tightly. "I'll feel safe if you're there with me when it happens."

"Of course I'll be there."

Squall cleared his throat. "If the two of you would finish that conversation on your own time...?" The duo went sheepishly quiet. "Thanks," was the dry response to their silence.

"Right now, Ultimecia is possessing Adel, probably trying to speed up her recovery from being sealed. It'll take time for her to regenerate from the ordeal, so we need to defeat her before she completely reawakens. Minion and the Sorceress Worshipers that are running the Lunatic Pandora have already capture Ellone; we have to make sure that they can't force her to help Ultimecia until we're in a position to take advantage of the time compression ourselves.

"This means that we're going to have to get aboard the Lunatic Pandora. To this end, President Loire has agreed to continue loaning the Ragnarok to Garden for the duration of our mission."

"Aww, we don't get to keep it?" Selphie complained. "Too bad."

"It is really cool," Zell muttered, looking rather upset as well. "Shouldn't there be salvage rights applicable here?"

"If you're that concerned about it, then figure it out for yourself later," Seifer responded. "Right now, we get to keep using the Ragnarok without Esthar kicking up a fuss. We can worry about whether or not we even want to keep it after we're finished with Ultimecia."

"The Ragnarok could be a very useful tool for SeeD, though, and not just during this mission," Quistis opined. Seeing the irritation on both Seifer and Squall's faces, she shrugged. "Any further information on the mission?"

"Once time begins compressing, we have to move forward no matter what we face in order to reach Ultimecia. If we go in the wrong direction, we may very well wind up lost in the past."

"I wonder why she wants to compress time, though," Selphie mused. "There has to be something she wants to change so desperately... maybe she lost someone she loved."

"Or maybe she wants the whole world bowing at her feet," Zell countered.

"We'll probably never know," Irvine added dryly. "It won't be very satisfying for us, but I suppose we'll get over it eventually."

Seifer idly tuned everyone out as they talked a little bit longer, not really interested in what they had to say. Some things wouldn't change, it seemed, and they were coming up on one of those all important moments fixed in time. The moment in which Ellone would send Ultimecia to the past and trigger time compression. He didn't remember how that happened the last time around, but he knew that Squall had reclaimed her from him that time. Fujin and Raijin left him... and there was a fight with a Garden Force that... disappeared? And something about Adel... and Rinoa...

His memories of the other time line weren't really making much sense anymore. There was just a general impression of what happened and Seifer didn't know whether that was because his memories were simply fading or Ultimecia's magic had dulled his senses and mind so badly that she'd erased whole chunks of memory and fuzzed up the rest.

"Seifer?" Looking up into curious blue eyes, Seifer realized he'd missed the others leaving. "Are you alright?" Squall's right hand reached out, absently caressing the side of Seifer's face.

Nodding, Seifer leaned into the touch against his cheek. "I'm going to have to deal with the members of security responsible for letting Minion escape before we leave. Just how much time do we have before setting off for the land of hermits?"

Squall frowned faintly. "You weren't paying any attention there at the end, were you?" Seifer shrugged sheepishly in response. "We're heading out at noon. We'll be stopping by a weapons shop Kiros recommended to me – Laguna has no appreciation for anything that isn't solely a gun," he grumbled. Sliding his hand cup the back of Seifer's neck, Squall leaned in and lightly brushed a kiss across Seifer's mouth.

Instantly, Seifer felt as though lips were buzzing from the contact. He reached out for Squall, but the brunet had already pulled away. "We should get as much accomplished before we leave as possible. I've got to meet up with Xu now."

"Then I'll go handle security," Seifer breathed out.

* * *

Freezing the security camera playback at the point where Minion started her attack, Seifer turned to the four guards. "So, anyone care to explain what was happening right there?" Emrys stood at Seifer's right, tapping her foot impatiently.

The guards winced under the dual glares.

"She overpowered us," one of the guards, a girl named Jessica Brink, finally said. "It was weird she hadn't tried before, but then she had been sick. One minute we were escorting her back to the cells and the next... we were in an oversized slip-n-slide."

The other three nodded in agreement, though one far more nervously than the rest.

"SeeD Alvarez, do you have anything to add to that?" Seifer pinned Kade Alvarez with a particularly vicious stare.

"No, sir," was the stiff response.

"Well, I certainly have something to add," Emrys growled, starting the playback again. The six of them watched the screen as three guards fought back and the forth... stood back. She froze the recording once more.

"One more time, SeeD Alvarez. Do you have anything to add?"

"No, sir. I think my actions speak for me quite adequately."

"So either you're woefully incompetent or a traitor to Garden," Emrys twisted her hands into fists as she spoke. "My vote is for both, however."

"SeeDs Brink, Jeffereys, and Chen," Seifer called the three to attention. "The three of you fought Minion in an attempt to stop her escape, which means you were all trying to do your job. However, none of you worked as a team. If you had, you might have beat her. Therefor, you're all going to take some remedial strategy and teamwork training with Emrys. Seeing as this is likely a problem that all of Security shares, you three get to be the ones to announce to the rest of Security that they'll be taking the remedial training with you.

"You three are dismissed."

Seifer waited for the doors to shut behind the trio before turning to glare at Alvarez again. He nodded in Emrys' direction and she picked up a clipboard to read off of.

"SeeD Kade Alvarez, ID number 24961837. Current rank: Captain. Current fight rating: thirty-two out of fifty. Age: twenty-three. Length of service: five years." Emrys paused and then added, "field commendations: none. Service commendations: none." Putting down the clipboard, she summed up what she'd read. "In five years of being a SeeD, you've done nothing. You're barely seven points about the minimum fight rating for employed SeeDs and done absolutely nothing to distinguish yourself. Your missions were all low rating and you performed the minimum amount before transferring into Security where you proceeded to do nothing. Garden has been your free ride up till now.

"I suppose you think that it isn't you who let Garden down. Clearly it must be the other way around, right? Garden let you down?" Her tone was mocking.

"Emrys..." Seifer gave her a quick look and she nodded, backing off. Alvarez just stood there stiffly, his expression stony.

"You were given a chance to leave Security and transfer into another section or even leave Garden altogether," Seifer told Alvarez. "You failed to take advantage of that option when it was still available and pulled this... stunt instead. You endangered your teammates and willfully stood back to allow a danger to Garden roam freely. There were no serious injuries inflicted during Minion's escape, which was lucky.

"Before I decide what to do with you, you are going to explain your actions, SeeD Alvarez. You'd best start talking."

"You're a disgrace to Garden," Alvarez hissed, his very words seemingly laced with venom. "You shouldn't have made it into SeeD, never mind been promoted over Chief Necheyev. Once Commander Leonhart stops using you as his fucktoy, you won't have a place here anymore..." Alvarez stumbled from the force of Emrys' fist hitting his face.

Seifer's hands were clenched into fists and he wanted to eviscerate the guy on the spot. But Jade had already bruised her hand on his face and... it was a little flattering to know that he'd already inspired that much loyalty in someone after barely a week into the job. It was enough of a balance that he didn't give in to the urge to shred the guy. "Alvarez," Seifer hissed dangerously, "between the two of us, you're the one who doesn't have a place here anymore."

Turning to Emrys, Seifer said, "call in some guards to put him in a cell." He waited in silence as Alvarez was taken away, the man not putting up any resistance. The disgraced SeeD merely glared venomously.

"You know, Jade... the only time I've ever had a girl 'defend my honor' before was when Fujin decided to set some idiot – the guy's name escapes me right now – straight on the matter of why I was rooming with her when, technically, co-ed dorms are not allowed for cadets." He watched her in amusement for a moment as she tried to work out what he was getting at.

"She's your sister, right?"

"Yeah. I prefer to fight my own battles, though. Next time, don't let your temper run away with you."

"Right..." she nodded and slumped into a chair, massaging the knuckles on her right hand. "I've been having a pretty sucky couple of days; he was... convenient to be pissed off at, I suppose." She let out a shuddering sigh. "My boyfriend doesn't like that I suddenly outrank him. He hasn't said anything, but he's been in a snit ever since I told him. So I'm trying to figure out the least confrontational way to break up with him, but mostly I just want to punch him for not being the guy he pretended to be."

"Sorry I've been dumping all these additional responsibilities on you," Seifer told her, his own anger at Alvarez vanishing. "I'm gonna be doing it again, though."

She laughed. "That's fine, boss-man. You know... it's a shame you're gay." She winked at him JOKINGLY. "Cute, doesn't mind dating someone who outranks him, witty, intelligent... there ought to be straight men like you somewhere." Jade laughed again at the look on his face, which was bit bemused.

"Good luck finding one," Seifer drawled, finally settling on a smirk.

"Hmmm... though I think I'll try to find one who isn't quite so full of himself," Jade mused, smirking a bit herself.

"Again, good luck finding one."

* * *

The return trip to Esthar was mostly uneventful. After confirming with Xu and Squall that Alvarez would not be remaining a SeeD – Squall intended to give the guy the boot officially once Garden was parked back by Balamb where it belonged – Seifer spent the rest of the morning doing paperwork. He'd had some experience with the dread 'beast' known as paperwork from his time as the head of the DC, but his new load was far greater. Finally, though, he reached a stopping point.

However, ten minutes later he was walking onto the Ragnarok. He then endured a second briefing on the mission, this time from Laguna Loire.

Loire was like a crow. He was easily distracted by shiny things. That was really all Seifer managed to learn from the briefing.

Once they arrived in Esthar, Selphie and Irvine immediately started learning from the technicians how to perform battle maneuvers and fire the lasers. Quistis and Zell volunteered to go with the engineers who wanted to give the Ragnarok's engines a quick tune-up. That left Seifer and Squall to go gunblade shopping.

The store that Kiros had directed Squall to was, visually speaking, a hole-in-the-wall sort of shop. If it were a restaurant, it would have been one of those charming little places with cracked walls and bad lighting but the best service and food in town. Instead it was filled with esoteric weapons that each seemed to glow with their own light as they hung on the otherwise water-stained walls.

Despite the poor condition of the shop itself, the merchandise was all in pristine condition.

Displayed prominently inside the glass counter across from the door, however, was the most beautiful weapon in the room. The blade pulsed with a soft blue light and the pommel was a sleek revolver design. In short, it was Lion Heart.

Instantly, Squall was across the room, kneeling in front of the counter in order to get a better look. His gaze was so intense that, even without being the object of his scrutiny, it sent little thrills of lust down Seifer's spine.

The blonde had to take a moment to breathe and center himself.

"It's perfect," Squall mumbled, probably not even aware he'd spoken.

Seifer quirked an eyebrow. "You haven't even touched it yet, Squall. For all you know, it's got terrible balance. Where's the shopkeeper, anyway?"

Reluctantly pulled out of his dazed eye-sex with the gunblade – Seifer had to remind himself that there was no reason to be jealous of a weapon no matter how beautiful and dangerous that weapon might be –, Squall stood up and took a better look around the room. "He's probably in the back." Reaching out, Squall tapped the bell on the counter, which pinged in response.

There was a shuffling noise and then the door behind the counter opened and an elderly gentleman peered out into the room. "Ah! Customers." Sounding pleased, the man walked forward. "May I enquire as to who recommended you here?"

"Kiros Seagil," Squall replied. The shop proprietor beamed in recognition.

"Each weapon in this shop was created for a specific person and none of them have been claimed yet. Which one calls to you?"

Squall gave the man a momentarily disbelieving look, but then tapped the counter. "This one," he said, gesturing to Lion Heart.

"Very well." The owner unlocked the glass and removed the blade, setting it atop the counter. "Try it for yourself."

Reverently, Squall picked up the gunblade. The grip fit his hands perfectly. The weight of the weapon looked as though it had been balanced with him in mind.

The glow of the weapon seemed to make Squall's eyes burn with blue flames. Once again, Seifer had to fight against being incredibly turned on by the intensity of his boyfriend's stare.

Squall gave the blade a few practice swings, but it was a forgone conclusion that he'd purchase Lion Heart. There could be no better weapon for Squall Leonhart to wield.

"How much?" Squall asked, placing it carefully back onto the counter.

"The gunblade is known as Lion Heart," the shopkeeper told them. "While no one else could possibly afford that blade, it sings in your hands. For you, it is priceless. Do not argue," he added, holding up a hand sharply. "This place is not a store in the traditional sense." He paused and fixed Seifer with a penetrating stare. "I will see you again."

"I can't just..." Squall started to speak, but the man cut him off.

"You can take it and you will. Go, speak to Kiros. He should have explained this place to you before sending you here. But then... he likes his jokes, that one." Before there could be any further protest, the owner disappeared into the back again.

The front door opened and they turned to face the newcomer... Kiros.

"This shop is a curiosity," Kiros told them, gazing around at the weapons with an odd look on his face. "The owner forges these weapons himself and he puts magic into them, though not magic as most understand it. I've seen that gunblade a dozen times before. I've never seen it glow before. It glows because it was meant to belong to you."

Kiros shrugged and elaborated., "Mr. Miyagi swears that the weapons are alive. I'm not sure I believe that, but the gunblade certainly seems to have chosen you. Regardless, he'll never accept payment for that blade and if you leave it here, he'll track you down and make you take it." Affecting an embarrassed expression, he added, "I learned that from experience."

"So I get to keep Lion Heart because it glows for me?" Squall asked, his tone incredulous. "How can he possibly make a living this way?"

"He's the last scion of a particularly wealthy Estharian family. He can afford to be eccentric." Kiros smiled in fond amusement. "That weapon will never lose its edge and never break. The magic within it might even be of use to you in your upcoming battle against Ultimecia. That's why I sent you here first; I was hoping that there would be a gunblade waiting for you here."

"You were right," Squall muttered, picking up Lion Heart and holding the weapon in his hands as though it were the most precious item in existence. "He'll seriously track me down and force me to take Lion Heart if I leave it here?"

"Yes. He's a stubborn coot when he wants to be and adept at making the right sort of public spectacle. Just take the gunblade, Squall."

Biting his bottom lip uncertainly, Squall glanced back at the door behind the counter. He let out a sigh and nodded, sheathing Lion Heart and belting it to his waist. "Is the Ragnarok ready for us to launch an offensive on the Lunatic Pandora?"

"Unfortunately our technicians have found some flaws in the engine. Unless these problems are corrected, the Ragnarok will not have enough power to break past the Lunatic Pandora's shields. Laguna has already extended an invitation to you and your team to stay the night at the Presidential Palace."


	23. Chapter 20

Disclaimer -_ Final Fantasy VIII_ does not belong to us, but we love it anyway.

A/N - Finally, it's here... Chapter 20, for all to read. I hope we didn't worry anyone, but it was a busy, busy holiday season.

_Chapter 20_

Seifer rather liked waking up to an armful of Squall. If it weren't for the fact that he fully intended to hog Squall to himself, he'd recommend everyone try it.

"Morning..." Squall mumbled, recognizing the subtle shifting from the blonde as a sign that Seifer had woken up.

"Morning," Seifer responded. "So... we're going to attack the Lunatic Pandora and hope that everything just sort of falls into place as we go? Today sounds awesome."

"I really hope you're being sarcastic," Squall grumbled, burying his face against Seifer's shoulder and the pillow. "I don't want to get up," could be heard, though the words were mostly muffled.

Seifer laughed and kissed Squall's neck, grinning impishly when the the brunet shivered against him. "Mmm... come on, get up," he commanded sitting up and pulling Squall with him. "We've got to check on the Ragnarok and then get everyone ready to storm the castle."

Grumpily, Squall scowled at him. "You're not supposed to be this cheerful in the morning," he told the blonde before sulkily getting out of bed, his hair sticking out at all directions and generally making him look like an angry kitten with his fur standing on end.

Stifling the laugh that threatened to jump out of his throat, Seifer got out of bed as well, quickly dressing and going through the morning routine, pausing only to pull Squall into a deep kiss before they exited the room. The kiss seemed to perk up the otherwise grouchy teen, much to Seifer's amusement.

Squall's moodiness, however, seemed to be the prevalent attitude in the dining hall when they walked in to join Laguna, Kiros, Ward, Zell, and Quistis for breakfast. Laguna was, as always, insatiably joyful, but the other four were nervous, tense, and barely picking at their food. Seifer couldn't wait for Selphie and Irvine to join them since that would help even out the moodiness-to-cheerfulness ratio a bit.

"So..." Seifer trailed off, glancing around at the mournful faces.

"This is really awkward," Laguna observed

"Yeah... well, they aren't looking at today the right way." Seifer smirked. "Today, we're get to crash the Ragnarok into a giant tower on purpose, kill two uber-bitches, and then sit back and let the contracts for killing the monsters from the Lunar Cry come in to Garden. They," Seifer gestures to Quistis and Zell, "have no sense of optimism."

Laguna laughed. "At least I'm not the only one trying to look on the bright side."

"You're not usually this cheerful in the morning," Quistis spoke up darkly. "Normally you're falling asleep in class."

"Today promises to be so much more interesting than classwork, Trepe," Seifer teased, smirking even more brightly as she scowled. "Think about it this way, Quistis. Today you'll get to save Cadell. Who knows what tomorrow will bring; maybe there are some dragons out there that weren't before the Lunar Cry. You might get to fight those."

The blonde woman brightened despite herself. "It would be fun to fight a dragon with Cadell on my side. And just think of all the data we could collect..." she trailed off at the sight of Zell's glare. "What?"

"Seifer's cheerfulness is clearly contagious." Zell scooted away from her. "I don't want to catch your plague."

Blue eyes narrowed in irritation for a moment before Quistis reached over and smacked Zell on the back of his head. "Idiot."

"Good morning!" Selphie chirped as she burst into the room, Irvine sauntering along behind her. The grins on their faces instantly set Kiros even more ill at-ease – the guy was clearly uncomfortable with all things related to Sorceresses.

The copper-haired creature known as Selphie would probably worm her way into Kiros' good graces soon enough, though. It was impossible to dislike Selphie for any length of time, after all. Seifer had certainly tried enough times as a child to know just how easy it was for her to make someone like her.

"Good morning!" Laguna chirped back. The man was like an older, male-version of Selphie in some ways. It was truly astonishing he was Squall's father what with how... hyper he was.

Seifer, however, was less amused to see Squall's mood darken even as his father's grew cheerier. Reaching under the table, Seifer slid his hand into Squall's and squeezed lightly. "Are you okay?" he asked quietly.

Expression softening as he looked up at Seifer, Squall nodded. "Just... ready to be out of here," he muttered, his grip tightening on Seifer's hand. "Is the Ragnarok ready for use now?" Squall asked, his voice louder so that everyone could hear him.

"Yes," Kiros responded. "The engine has been fixed and should now be more than capable of withstanding the stress of breaking through the Lunatic Pandora's shields and breaching the walls. Once you're all ready, we'll take you straight to the Ragnarok."

* * *

Selphie was an excellent pilot. The way she attacked the controls, blasting the Lunatic Pandora's shields to weaken them before ramming the structure with the Ragnarok itself and then manipulating the Ragnarok's arms so that it practically crawled into the side of the giant tower, was almost artistic. Seifer felt pretty damn proud of his sister; she was turning into an amazing Sorceress.

The SeeDs exited the Ragnarok and piled into the hallway of the Lunatic Pandora. There was only one door visible, so they made their way into the room.

As luck would have it, Minion and Ellone were in there along with an auburn haired woman in a slinky green dress. Seifer's first thought was 'how convenient.' His second thought was 'I hope that lady isn't stupid enough to think she can fight in that dress.'

"We've come to take back Ellone," Squall announced.

Minion glanced at the red-haired woman nervously. "Are you sure..."

"You are the Goddess' chosen protector," the woman commanded imperiously. "You will fight to defeat these heathens. Show them what the wrath of a true believer is like."

"I..." Minion took a step towards the SeeDs, her hands clenched into fists. "I..." she shook her head. "No!" Turning, she grabbed Ellone and shoved her towards Squall. "Everything is still so fuzzy in my memories, but my mind has been growing clearer ever since I left Garden. This isn't right. I won't help you hurt my friends." She drew her stilettos and glared at the woman. "I'm not some brainwashed nut like you."

"Nut?" The woman laughed. "I have true faith, child. The Goddess tried to save you, but I suppose not every soul can be saved."

"Your Goddess makes her will known through Sorceresses, right?" Selphie spoke up. "Well, I'm a Sorceress. Are you really going to fight me?"

"The power only chose you because you were possessed by the true avatar at the time," the woman declared. "You must be destroyed so that the power of the Goddess may move on to a worthy host."

"Well... it was worth a shot," Selphie shrugged.

"I think you're goddess-like," Irvine offered, earning a grin from his girlfriend.

Waggling her eyebrows, Selphie told him, "keep those compliments coming, Irvy. You'll like the results."

"Now is really not the time, guys," Zell told them, rolling his eyes at the flirtatious pair.

"Hmmph, children," scoffed the Sorceress worshiper. Flicking her wrist a silver, extensible staff appeared in her right hand. "I shall destroy you all personally." She waved her free hand negligently, a Guardian Force flickering into view in front of them.

It was Odin. There was no mistaking the GF's appearance; only Odin took the visage of a knight on horseback. Sword in hand, he leveled his weapon at Minion, prepared to attack her with his Zantetsuken technique, which left his enemies cut in half before they could even begin to fight back.

There was no way Seifer was going to let the Guardian Force hurt Minion. He rushed forward, Hyperion firmly in hand and unleashed a Fire Cross attack. The fire magic curled around Hyperion as he cut off Odin's attack. The GF shrieked in pain as the blade ripped through it's armor and the fire burned away at it's energy.

Odin sat atop its horse for a long moment before its sword clattered to the floor and it seemed to split in half before exploding into shimmers of light.

"You killed it," Minion breathed out in awe. "You killed a Guardian Force."

"Uh... apparently, yeah," Seifer couldn't remember if this happened in the other time line. If he'd known before, the knowledge was slipping away from him. But... he'd managed it here and that was what mattered. "Are you alright?"

"Ummm... I don't think I'm ready to answer that just yet." Minion narrowed her eyes at the Sorceress Worshiper. "Let's kick her ass now, okay?"

Seifer glanced over his shoulder to see the door to the room shut; Ellone was nowhere in sight. The others must have gotten her to safety.

Twirling her staff arrogantly, the woman said, "Odin never was any good at following orders. Doomtrain! Cut them off from their allies!"

Instantly a giant, living train was encircling them, moving too fast for Squall, or anyone else, to reach Seifer, Minion, or the Sorceress worshiping bitch. Seifer paused; "do you have a name? I can't keep thinking of you as the Sorceress worshiping bitch; though if you won't tell me then I'll just shorten it to SWB, or something like that."

"I suppose you have the right to know the name of the person who will kill you. My name is Marlene."

"Did she seriously just say that?" Minion muttered. "_You have the right to know the name of the person who will kill you_," she mocked. "How many B and C rated scifi and fantasy flicks did you have to watch to find a line that ridiculously corny?"

"It only takes one," Seifer joked.

"Insolence!"

"Bet she learned that from the same movie," Minion quipped as she blocked Marlene's opening attack and then swiped at her with a stiletto.

Seifer lifted his gunblade, prepared to jump into the fight himself, but... had a better idea as he watched Marlene begin to summon yet another Guardian Force. Reaching out mentally with Alexander's help, Seifer opened his mind to magic and, suddenly, he could see the spells and GF's that Marlene had junctioned. Grasping at one of the GF's, Seifer twisted his hand and drew the GF out of her.

Marlene screamed, stumbling back as the GF was torn from her mind. Doomtrain disappeared and, startled, Minion pulled away from her attack on Marlene.

Normally it took time to acclimatize to a new GF and it couldn't be summoned until much later. But either Seifer had a greater affinity to his new acquisition than he'd anticipated... or Doomtrain hated Marlene just that much. Whatever the answer was, it didn't matter as Seifer smirked, raised his hand, and spoke the GF's name.

"Doomtrain."

Shimmering back into existence, the train rushed forward. It rammed into Marlene, mowing her down and vanishing back into nowhere as soon as it hit the wall behind it's fallen victim. Lying on the floor, broken and bloody, Marlene didn't even so much as twitch or breathe.

"You're officially a little scary when it comes to Guardian Forces," Minion declared shakily, following her declaration with a brief, hysterical bark of laughter.

"The fourth one..."

The voice seemed to come out of nowhere and Seifer turned sharply to face the unfamiliar speaker, a dark haired man dressed in a red cloak. His cowl cast his face into shadow and horns poked out of the sides of his head and through holes cut in the fabric of his outerwear. In his hands he held Odin's sword; three other swords were strapped to his back.

"I've been waiting for this for quite some time," the man intoned, sheathing the weapon beside his other three swords. The sheath he placed it in seemed to appear from nowhere.

A sinking sensation coiled at the pit of Seifer's stomach as he realized that the man was a Guardian Force... or something rare and much worse.

"You, though... you killed Odin?" The man gestured to Seifer, who clutched Hyperion tightly. "You're just a human. How could you have had the power to kill a Spirit?"

"Just lucky, I guess," Seifer drawled with feigned nonchalance.

"I suppose I should show you how grateful I am. Dodge this!"

Even with so little warning, Seifer managed to move out of the way of the whirlwind the strange man sent his way. Unfortunately, he wasn't fast enough to avoid the sword that slammed against his shoulder. The impact should have shattered the socket and, as it stood, the point of the weapon sliced through Seifer's jacket and shirt.

Stumbling backwards, Seifer's mind needed a few seconds to get over the shock of the attack and process two very important facts: he should have been killed and he'd barely been scratched. "What the hell?" he managed to demand.

Glaring at the sword in his hands, the red-clad man sighed. "Excalipar... of course it would be that one I grabbed. For crying out loud..." shaking his head, he shrugged. "Oh well. You killed Odin with one hit and the rules are clear in matters of vengeance for my kind." Sheathing his sword, the man shrugged. "Tootles."

Waving his hands jerkily, the man muttered, "now where is that dimensional interval again...?" Fading away, the last thing he could be heard to say was a triumphant "found it!"

Seifer closed his eyes and let out a shaky breath, wondering just how bad of a bullet he'd just dodged. He felt gloved fingers running over his scratched shoulder and reached out, his hands grasping Squall's elbows. Not even bothering to open his eyes, he burrowed his face against Squall's shoulder and breathed deeply, the brunet's scent steadying him. He was alive and Squall was here with him... slowly his body stopped trembling.

"Seifer..." Squall murmured, taking the time to steady himself as well. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah... there's barely even a scratch on me." Seifer took a step back and opened his eyes, though he held on to Squall's arms for a few moments longer. "I just... wasn't expecting anything like that."

"I don't think anyone did." Squall's blue eyes were filled with fading terror, something Seifer only ever remembered seeing once before, on that horrible night that McCormick had shot him.

"Well, that was exciting," Minion announced, clinging to Quistis' arm with one hand and pawing at her eyes with her free one. She snuffled a little and muttered something about allergies. "Anyway, you guys are here to do something about Adel, right? She's in the other room and I'm pretty certain that her waking up would be a bad thing."

"You should probably stay here, Cadell," Quistis told her gently. "Ultimecia has been..."

Minion tensed up and her eyes squeezed shut. "Don't say her name," she said tightly. "I... I'm supposed to..."

"Cadell?" Quistis freed her arm and placed both hands on the navy-haired woman's shoulders. "Look at me, Cadell."

"I'm sorry. I wish I wasn't hers..." Cadell wrenched free of Quistis' grip even as her eyes snapped open. She darted away through a doorway opposite the door the SeeD had used to get in.

"No..." Quistis' hands tightened into fists as she glared at the door Minion had vanished through. "Adel must be in there. Ultimecia is still using Cadell for something."

"She's fighting now, though," Zell offered quietly, his voice echoing in the room's sudden silence. "Minion is fighting back against Ultimecia's control. It's a start."

The blonde woman nodded jerkily, but the angry expression on her face didn't abate in the slightest. Seifer almost felt sorry for Ultimecia. Once Quistis got to that Sorceress, she'd unleash hell for Minion's sake.

Selphie led the way into the next room, but the six SeeD froze in horror at what lay within. Seven feet tall, unnaturally muscular, hair candy-apple red, skin almost bleached white... and completely naked from the waist up, Adel had to be the ugliest woman in all of existence.

"Oh damn, she's ugly," Zell groaned, turning away and shuddering. "My eyes... they burn."

"Just looking at her is an assault on us; how are we supposed to fight her?" Irvine muttered, half-serious.

Adel's eyes opened.

"She's staring at me," Selphie announced, her voice shaking. "It's creepy. Let's kill her before this gets any freakier."

"A Sorceress..." Adel hissed, her arm slowly struggling free of the clear ooze that had kept her cryogenically frozen in space. "I... require your power." She reached towards Selphie, though her arm fell short of reaching the copper-haired Sorceress.

"Selphie, stay on support," Squall announced. "She'll try to take your power if you get to close. Irvine, stay with Selphie and protect her."

"Not a problem," Irvine agreed, tweaking his hat for emphasis.

"Quistis, make sure Minion stays out of this fight. Incapacitate her if you have to, but we don't want to fight her unless absolutely necessary."

"Affirmative, Commander," Quistis snapped out, having fallen into 'good little SeeD' mode in the face of a battle with Lady Fugly.

"Seifer, Zell," Squall drew his gunblade and leveled it at Adel, "we'll attack her directly."

"Sounds like fun," the blonde men chorused, exchanging grins.

Adel shrieked incoherently with rage, flinging magic aimlessly at her attackers. She was still too out of it from her time frozen to manage high level magic. Yet even that sort of slow chaos could be dangerous if the fighters didn't take her seriously.

Squall led the attack, using Shell to deflect Adel's spells and cutting through her Protect shield with a single hit from Lion Heart, the blade pulsing with magic when it struck the magical construct. Zell darted in then, attacking the apparatus holding Adel instead of going after the Sorceress herself and, after a moment, Seifer realized why. The goo holding the Sorceress hostage was conducive to electricity, but there were safeguards in place to keep the device from frying itself - likely Odine's idea to keep her sealed for future study instead of simply killing her, which would have been the prudent course of action. Those safety measures had to be destroyed before electrifying Adel would work.

Seifer followed Zell's lead while Squall distracted Adel by slicing at her arm with Lion Heart. The gel that covered her slowed his attack considerably, blunting the damaged he'd have otherwise caused and covering the blue gunblade in the disgusting stuff. Immediately the gunblade started 'self-cleaning' by burning away the goo, much to Squall's relieved surprise.

Piece by piece, Seifer and Zell whittled away at Adel's cage until, finally, it looked like her enclosure would absorb enough volts to kill her off. "Selphie, hit her with as much electricity as you can," Seifer shouted, pulling Squall along with him as he stumbled out of Selphie's line of fire. Zell dove to the opposite side and the whole room froze as Selphie did as Seifer had told her.

The Thundagas that Selphie used slammed into Adel and crackled along her gel-covered form with visible bursts of electricity. The Estharian Sorceress screamed in pain, her body twitching and jerking under the onslaught. Her screams faded quickly, though, and the magic that rose from Adel's slightly twitchy form was testament to her death.

Selphie wrapped her arms around herself as the new magic flooded into her. But she wasn't alone. Irvine had already moved behind her and had slipped his arms around Selphie's shoulder, whispering softly to her as she mentally psyched herself up for what came next. Her body shuddered and then she shoved Irvine away violently.

Minion, who'd quieted down during the fight against Adel, snapped into action and attacked Quistis with a water spell that knocked her into Irvine. "Ultimecia," Minion's voice wavered. "What do you want me to do now?"

"Your heart betrays me," Ultimecia spoke through Selphie. "I have no use for a broken Knight. These SeeDs think they can beat me at my own game, but they shall serve me better than you, my little failure." Turning to Squall, Ultimecia continued to speak. "Bring her in and allow me to compress time. Then we shall see who will be triumphant."

"Zell... bring Ellone here," Squall ordered, not taking his eyes off of Selphie's possessed form. Seifer could see the guilt in the blue-gray depths, even if no one else could.

Zell hurried out of the room to do as asked.

Seifer's gaze turned to Minion, though. She was growing pale and her body was shaking ever so slightly. He worried that, if she didn't try to kill Ultimecia for abandoning her, Cadell would collapse again. Worse, that when she did collapse she'd be even more ill this time than the last time. Motioning to Quistis, who was gingerly clambering to her feet, Seifer hoped she'd get the message to stick close to Minion so that she'd be there no matter what happened.

Quistis nodded sharply and moved to stand by Cadell again.

"You used me," Minion whispered hoarsely.

"Of course I did."

"You..." Cadell's body shook harder, her eyes rolling up as she passed out into Quistis' waiting arms.

"She's burning up!" Quistis exclaimed, cradling the woman's fallen form closely.

"Her magic is trying to remove the influence of my magic," Ultimecia remarked absently. "Mind magic seems benign to the person affected until they are given sufficient reason to believe otherwise. That's when their magic revolts against a Sorceress' magic and the spell begins to break. My hold on her has been weakening since before she arrived on the Lunatic Pandora. I have no further use for a broken doll, so it's just as well that this happens now." She eyed Seifer curiously. "Though how it is that you were able to fight off my magic without even knowing that I'd placed a spell on you..." she crossed her arms and frowned. "It should be impossible. You should have been drawn to my side without ever knowing the reason."

"Or maybe you don't know everything there is to know about magic after all," Seifer offered mockingly.

"Perhaps..." she mused, then narrowed her eyes. "Or perhaps it is simply that I'm missing information on you. You resisted my most powerful compulsions... before you hooked up with your boyfriend. While his influence was obviously what saved you the second time, there must have been something else that broke the first spell's hold upon you."

"Here she is," Zell called, leading Ellone inside.

"Ellone, send her back now," Squall commanded tightly, his eyes never leaving Selphie's possessed form.

"Right." Ellone's eyes closed and she swayed slightly, Zell grabbing her elbows quickly to keep her from loosing her balance. Selphie's body collapsed, but Irvine managed to catch her before she hit the floor. Ellone reopened her eyes and she smiled at Zell gratefully. "She should awaken any moment now, but Ultimecia's mind will remain in the past."

As if on cue, Selphie's green eyes flickered open and she grabbed onto Irvine's arms, burrowing her face against his chest. "I was inside Adel's mind... the young Adel. Even then, she was so full of selfishness and hatred..." she shuddered. Then she pulled away, standing up and pulling Irvine up with her. "I'll be okay."

"I know, love," Irvine murmured, running his fingers idly through her hair before wrapping his arm around her shoulder.

"It's time for all of you to go finish Ultimecia off together," Ellone told them. "I can send you all into Time Compression, but you'll have to find your own ways out. Keep a place in mind that is important to you and concentrate on how it looks in the present. When you've defeated Ultimecia, time will not be able to maintain it's compressed state; that is when you must make yourselves return to the present." Walking over to Quistis, she knelt down and held out her arms for Minion's unconscious form. "I'll take care of her for you, Quisty, I promise."

Biting her lip nervously, Quistis nodded and passed Cadell over to Ellone. "I'll be back for you, Cadell..." Quistis whispered, brushing strands of navy hair away from Cadell's face. "Thank you Ellone."

"What are sister's for?" Ellone responded with a smile, which was hesitantly returned. "Now, go kick Ultimecia's ass for this girl, okay?"

"Of course!" Quistis stood and joined the others.

"Good luck, all of you," Ellone said. Her words were the last thing that made sense.

One moment the world was normal and the next... Seifer had a feeling the bending and twisting that the room seemed to go through was a lot like what someone on LSD might see while high. Then the floor seemed to rise up and swallow them, the darkness closing around them.

* * *

Coughing and spluttering, Seifer struggled to stay above the waves. He wasn't sure how they wound up in the water or where they were even supposed to go, but their first priority had to be to swim to land or they'd drown before ever even reaching Ultimecia's hideout.

"Where are we?" Selphie shouted, her voice only just audible above the sound of the waves crashing around her.

"I don't know! Let's just head for the beach over there!" Zell yelled back, waving his arm towards a tan, sandy place in the distance.

"Follow Zell!" Squall shouted as they all started swimming towards the far off land.

The water seemed to drop out from beneath them and, for a moment, they seemed to fall through the air. Birds swirled around them and then melted together. Seifer squeezed his eyes shut and waited for the trip to end.

He felt the floor beneath his legs and under his palms. Seifer took a deep breath and looked around. They were in a room somewhere that Seifer couldn't even begin to guess at with architecture unlike anything Seifer had ever seen before. The walls were smooth and painted black and the floor a sort of green marble...

"Huh... so this is what the future looks like," Seifer mused, scrambling to his feet along with the others. Even though they'd been in the ocean mere moments ago, they were completely dry now. "It's kind of..."

"Dreary looking?" Selphie filled in when Seifer trailed off with a shrug.

"Yeah."

"Let's get out of here. We need to find Ultimecia quickly," Squall said, hurrying over to the room's only door and throwing it open.

The door led out onto the beach, which was strewn with corpses. All the dead wore the uniforms SeeD, their blood soaking the sand.

"Do you think this really happened?" Irvine asked.

"I hope not... if she could do this to the SeeDs of the future, then what chance do we..."

"If this is real," Quistis cut Zell off, "then they were killed by more than just one Sorceress acting alone. Her forces are likely dead too."

"Where are the bodies of the enemy soldiers, then?" Selphie asked, her voice shaking slightly as she looked away from the carnage.

"They're further up on the beach," Seifer told her, gesturing to the bodies closer to the treeline. The bodies were decidedly not wearing SeeD uniforms, but the designs of their armor was unlike anything they'd ever seen before. The tan coloring made the bodies hard to see against the sand, though Seifer could tell that there were some interspersed amongst the SeeD on the beach now that he knew what they looked like.

"Before we go any further," Squall spoke up, "we need to decide on a place to go to when we leave this place."

"The Orphanage," Seifer spoke up. "We should meet there. It's the place where we all met; our ties there are the strongest."

One by one, they all agreed. Zell took point, carefully weaving a path across the sands that avoided the dead.

"Seifer." Squall linked his fingers with Seifer's. "I love you."

Cupping Squall's cheek, Seifer leaned in and pressed a chaste kiss against the brunet's lips. "I love you too."

Looking out over the beach covered in death, Seifer suppressed a shudder and tightened his grip on Squall's hand. There were so many dead SeeD... the idea that there might be six more dead SeeD soon was terrifying.

A/N - Yeah, so it took us a while to find the time to get this chapter put together. Christmas, New Years, the start of the latest school semester, Kit starting the process of buying a house (yup, she's gonna be a home owner! Go Kit!)... but finally we have not just Chapter 20, but an interlude as well. :) The next chapter will have the fight against Ultimecia. As you may have noticed, we cut out the... what was it, twelve Sorceress fights that occur before arriving at the corpse strewn beach? Yeah... we'll be cutting a few other things too. Basically all the hoops that have to be jumped through to reach Ultimecia in her castle are gone. They just wander around until they get to the right room instead. Kit and I decided that it was kind of overkill to include all those battles... especially since writing battles kinda sucks.

Now, go read the Interlude. We know you want to. ^_~


	24. Interlude 4

Disclaimer - We own nothing. *Sniffle*

A/N - Here's the last interlude of the story. :) We debated what would go in here. Xu holding the fort while the others are off saving the world... Emrys using her secondary weapons proficiency as a sniper to paintball attack the security staff in the name of teaching them how to work in teams... a look into the minds of Laguna and his posse... so many choices. In the end we went with something actually relevant plot wise. The rest will show up during our upcoming hiatus between this story and its sequel. Some things had to hit the cutting room floor, but got typed up anyway. We'll share those things with you guys cause you'll all likely find it pretty amusing. ^_^

**_Interlude Four_**

Squall didn't know where he was going at first.

He knew where he wanted to be - standing in front of the broken down orphanage where they'd all promised to meet - but this place was like a void and he couldn't find the exit. Squall was everywhere and nowhere and he needed to find Seifer.

"Seifer!"

No one responded to his shouts, but the darkness surrounding him seemed to grow lighter.

"Squall! Come back here!" called a familiar, feminine voice.

"No! I'm gonna find Sis!" Squall recognized the child's voice too; it was his own. "Elle wouldn't just leave me!"

"Squall!"

The orphanage appeared in front of Squall in pristine condition, though the lighthouse in the distance still appeared quite dilapidated. Edea hurried up to Squall, a look of worry on her face.

"I'm sorry to bother you, but have you seen a little boy? He just ran past here and..."

"You don't have to worry," Squall reassured her. "The boy won't go anywhere."

"I think so too," she sighed, gazing off towards the flower field. "Poor thing... I thought it would be better this way, safer for Ellone. But I didn't even think of what her absence would to to him..." she trailed off and shook her head. "I'm sorry," she said again, "but what brings you here?"

Squall opened his mouth to answer, though he had no idea what he was going to say. His story was too crazy and he couldn't stay here. With any luck he'd be able to go back into the failing Time Compression and return to the present before he was stranded in this time.

And then Ultimecia appeared in front of him, scaring Edea so badly that she stumbled backwards and fell on her rear end.

Even covered in blood and wounds from battle, Ultimecia was beautiful. There was something about her that made her seem more like an afflicted, beaten down heroine than some great evil. Perhaps it was the way she carried herself, determination obvious in her blue eyes even as she swayed drunkenly from blood-loss. Maybe there was an explanation for all her actions. Maybe she had good reasons for all the deaths she'd caused.

But Squall had resigned himself to never knowing what drove Ultimecia to such extreme measures. Whatever her reasons were, there was no excuse for the things she'd done. There was no excuse for deaths she'd caused or the way she'd raped Cadell Minion's mind. There was no excuse for using a man like James McCormick as her first Knight or killing a man in cold blood in front of an audience just because she knew she would get away with it. Nothing she could say or do would ever make Squall think of her as anything more than a beautiful monster who'd tried to steal Seifer from him.

"You're alive," Squall hissed hatefully, his eyes narrowing as he glared at Ultimecia.

"She's a Sorceress," Edea breathed out.

"Yes, Matron," Squall responded. "She's a Sorceress. She tried to rewrite history to suit her preferences. We had defeated her, but..." he shook his head, leveling his gunblade at Ultimecia. He couldn't recall drawing Lion Heart, though he must have done it automatically the moment she appeared. Edea clambered to her feet and stepped forward. Squall moved to stop her. "Matron, stand back."

"It's okay. There's no more need to fight. That Sorceress is just looking for someone to pass her powers on to. In order to die peacefully, a Sorceress must be free of all her powers." She paused and glanced at him worriedly. "I know this because I, too, am a Sorceress.

"I don't want one of the children to become a Sorceress. It's a burden they are too young for. So, please, pass your powers on to me," Edea addressed Ultimecia.

"I... I can't... disappear... yet..." Ultimecia struggled, the tell-tale color of a healing spell sparking on her fingertips for a moment before fading away uselessly. Golden spheres seemed to leach out of her instead. The spheres rushed at Edea, sinking into her body and vanishing. Squall could only assume it was Ultimecia's magic passing on to Edea.

When the last sphere left Ultimecia's body, she crumpled to the ground in a heap, disappearing back into Time Compression. Squall could feel the time magic, like an itch in the back of his mind, and he tried to concentrate on it. The feeling grew stronger and Squall knew he'd be able to leave once his connection to the moment of compression was strong enough. For now, though, he was on the receiving end of one of Matron's infamous stares, the one that meant the person being stared at had a great deal of explaining to do.

Seifer was pinned by that stare a great deal when they were children, which probably explained his immunity to glares from lesser individuals.

"You called me Matron. Who are you?" Edea glowered at him and crossed her arms, tapping one foot impatiently.

Squall smiled. Selphie would do the same thing when she got annoyed or frustrated and, whenever she was impatient, Quistis would do it as well. "I'm a SeeD from Garden, a place you will help create. Garden trains SeeDs, who will protect the world from Sorceress who go mad with power... and protect Sorceresses from unjust persecution."

Clasping his arms, Edea peered into Squall's eyes. "Squall?" she whispered, full of wonder and disbelief. "How...?"

"I can't stay. I have to go back to my own time. Everything will turn out okay, Matron. Just..." glancing back at the orphanage, Squall realized something. This was why he'd never been adopted even though everyone else, except Seifer, was. He remembered couples who'd wanted to adopt him, but Edea never let them. She had them take other children instead. But what if... "just promise me something." The words came out of Squall's mouth before he could stop himself. "Promise me that Seifer and I will go to Balamb Garden together. Don't let us get separated."

"Squall..."

"Promise me, Matron. I'll need him there with me."

"I... I promise, Squall. I won't let anyone separate you from Seifer."

For a moment, Squall felt relieved. Then his younger self ran up and Squall remembered how much they'd all wanted to be adopted. Even Seifer had spoken longingly of having a mother and father of his own. Freezing cold washed through his body even as the little boy spoke.

"I can't find Sis. Am I... all alone? Who's he?"

"No one, sweetheart. Go back inside. Your sister wouldn't want you out in this cold weather." Edea looked over at Squall. "Do you know where to go back to? Do you know how? Will you be all right by yourself?"

"Matron..." Squall started to speak, wanting to ask her to unmake the promise. He had no right to take away Seifer's chance to grow up with a family. The others wound up learning at the Gardens; who was to say Seifer wouldn't still be there to challenge him and fall in love with him even if Seifer were adopted? But the feeling in the back of his mind grew overwhelming, dragging him away before he could voice anything more than the first word of his request.

"No..." Squall choked off the word, dropping to his knees on the cold ground, surrounded by nothingness. How could he explain this to Seifer? He'd been so selfish in that moment and taken from Seifer something precious: the possibility of being adopted into a loving family.

How could he ever be forgiven?

* * *

Irvine glanced around the flower field near the abandoned, broken down orphanage. "I guess we're the first ones back," he told Selphie.

"Looks that way," Selphie chirped with a smile. "Just means I get you all to myself for a little while."

"I like the sound of that," he replied, but his nervousness must have shone through.

"Irvy, is something wrong?"

"Selphie..." Irvine leaned forward and drew her into a kiss. "I love you. I want to protect you and be with you forever... as your Knight..." he dropped down to one knee and pulled out a ring he'd sneaked off to buy while in Esthar, "and as your husband. Will you have me?"

"Oh, Irvine..." Selphie gaped at him for a moment, tears welling in her eyes. "Oh... yes... yes!" she smiled and threw her arms around his shoulders, kissing him enthusiastically. Pulling away, Irvine stood up and plucked the ring from its box - it was platinum with a small emerald and two even tinier diamonds and it would take a few months before he could pay back Laguna for chipping in financially. Sliding the delicate ring onto her finger, Irvine felt something like electricity leap between Selphie's hand and his. Suddenly he could feel her magic buzzing around him - through him - like he'd put his hand in an electric socket except the electricity was 'friendly' instead of painful.

"Woah..." he breathed out before pulling her into another intense kiss.

"Mmmm... I can feel you with my magic," Selphie murmured against his lips. "It's like... it's like we're part of each other now."

"Always," Irvine responded. "I'll always be yours."

"I love you," Selphie told him before echoing, "I'll always be yours."

"Hey you two, get a room," Zell called teasingly, signaling his arrival.

Grinning mischievously, the duo broke apart. Selphie held up her left hand. "Look, Zell! Irvine proposed!"

"What? Hyne... guys, congratulations!"

A/N - In earlier chapters, Kit and I mentioned that the villains for the next story were codenamed Evil Ink... well, Evil Ink would be the Sorceress Worshipers that are giving Laguna such a hard time in Esthar. Of course, they don't think Selphie is the 'True Sorceress' chosen by the Sorceress powers, but was simply taken as a host because she was possessed by the 'Future Sorceress' at the time she received the powers. So... they're going to cause all sorts of trouble. That's just one of the ongoing plots that will be tied up in the sequel. Jade Emrys and Cadell Minion will continue to feature along with the Library Girl (Zell's love interest in the game) who will be revealed in the epilogue of this story. We're thinking of calling her either Melody or Melanie. If anyone has a preference, let us know 'cause otherwise I'm just gonna have Kit flip a coin for it.


	25. Chapter 21

Disclaimer - We still don't own FF8, so the official game rewrite for the PS3 will have to wait until we've managed to procure the rights...

A/N - We're posting up a batch this time. The epilogue is also up along with the first installment of _The Cutting Room Floor Presents_, a_ Gunblade Storage_ story from Kit, and the 'director's cut' version of chapters one and two. The 'director's cut' version of the chapter is much improved, in our opinion, and we'll be running through the entire story to update the plot (for the sake of ironing out a few holes here and there), the dialogue, and the descriptions.

Oh, and after much thought, we decided that even wandering through the castle was too tedious to write. Besides, a castle foyer seems like as good a place as any for a battle.

_Chapter 21_

Though the outside of the castle had been impressive in a 'hulking, scary castle of doom' (the kind that all but shouts 'abandon hope, all ye who enter here' right in a person's ear) sort of manner, the inside was glamorously beautiful. Seifer couldn't help but be a little impressed. Ultimecia had either been an amazing decorator before she'd become a Sorceress or she'd hired a very capable interior designer after taking possession of this place. The chandeliers managed to be tasteful instead of tacky, there were large windows letting in plenty of natural light (though they displayed a scene that was most definitely not a beach full of dead bodies), the floors were a dark hardwood... but all in all, it felt more like a museum than a home.

On the wall hung a portrait of two women. One with long, blonde hair and eyes the color of chocolate. She was dressed in a shimmering green gown and was smiling brightly as she gazed at the woman beside her. The second woman was equally gorgeous with dark hair, a pale complexion, and luminous cerulean eyes, though her dress a more sedate, deep purple. For a moment, Seifer thought that the blonde woman in the portrait was familiar, like he'd glimpsed her somewhere before. But that was impossible... right?

"This place was created in honor of Edea Kramer, a tribute to the creator of SeeD." The Sorceress Ultimecia, for it could only be her, walked into the room. She was the second woman in the portrait, her long, dark hair falling around her face in loose ringlets. She really was beautiful and she moved with deadly grace. "They built it a generation or so after your deaths and brought new Sorceresses here to learn about their power along with the responsibilities that go with that power."

"What did you do, sleep through too many classes?" Seifer asked mockingly.

"No," she responded flatly. "What none of you really understand is that I'm not the villain of this piece. It's all of you. You're the ones who cause everything to go so very wrong."

"What do you mean?" Zell asked, sounding genuinely worried.

Seifer thought back to what Edea had told him about SeeD possibly leading to Ultimecia, that the cause was also the affect. "She's making excuses. Everyone else is responsible for her choices, for the deaths she's caused. Because, obviously, it can't be her. Otherwise, her fragile little conscience would shatter."

"I blame SeeD because SeeD led to this moment. You can try to justify things all you want, but without all the information... you're just shouting into the void." Ultimecia smiled and drew her twin swords.

Unlike the Sorceress worshiper, Marlene, Ultimecia was dressed in the right sort of clothing for battle. Her black shirt was tight, but not restrictive, and her equally dark pants were loose, but not so much that they'd get in her way. Black combat boots were visible on her feet.

She faced them without fear.

"I will destroy you all and change the future. There is no other option."

Energy shot away from her swords, creating energy barriers throughout the room. Seifer had no doubt that Ultimecia could walk through the magic without issue but the rest of them would be injured just by touching them.

"Stay away from the barriers!" Squall shouted, clearly harboring the same suspicions as Seifer. Everyone brought their weapons to bear, preparing for the fight.

Ultimecia attacked Zell first, corralling the martial artist into a corner and slashing at him with her swords while he did his best to fend her off. Seifer tried to get to his fellow blonde in time, but Ultimecia pulled back and blasted Zell with dark energy. A hole opened up beneath Zell and, for a moment, Seifer could see a dark land of nothingness beneath his fellow blonde. Then Zell dropped into that nowhere place and vanished.

The nothingness was familiar and, though Seifer had no reason to feel reassured at the sight of such a daunting place, Seifer felt that Zell would be just fine. It was the rest of them who were in trouble.

Smirking at the five remaining SeeD through the energy barriers, Ultimecia leveled one of her blades at Irvine. There was no mistaking her intention to go after the cowboy next.

That was her first mistake.

Selphie vibrated with rage and she cast Ultima, the magic slamming into every barrier and reducing them to nothing. The power of the Ultima spell washed harmlessly over Seifer and the rest, recognizing them from Selphie's mind as friendlies, and then knocking into Ultimecia. Ultimecia screamed, the sound echoing throughout the room. When the magic cleared, the Sorceress was singed all over, smoke rising from her clothes.

"Bitch," Ultimecia hissed softly. "Five on one isn't exactly fair. Can you blame me for wanting to even the odds?" She laughed mockingly, straightening a little. "Fine. I'll add to my numbers then. Perhaps two on five will be good enough." Waving her fingers, long sharp nails glinting in the air, Ultimecia gestured at Squall.

Instantly, Squall doubled over, gasping in pain. Lion Heart dropped from his hands, clattering to the floor even as the blade shimmered in an attempt to fight off Ultimecia's magic. Squall would have fallen to the ground as well had Seifer not somehow made it across the room in time to grab the brunet's lithe form. Squall trembled in Seifer's arms, his breath coming in sharp gasps even as his hands grasped at Seifer for support.

"Squall...?"

"Fuck..." Squall's eyes squeezed shut. "It hurts..."

Seifer looked up at Ultimecia, finally feeling the deep, all-encompassing hate for her that Quistis probably already did. He wanted the bitch dead and he wanted her dead _now_.

Black smoke seemed to cover Squall's skin and, for a moment, Seifer could feel Squall struggle in vain for air. Just as Seifer was ready to start panicking, the smoke lifted off of Squall and coalesced into a Squall-like shadow beside Ultimecia. Squall's body relaxed in Seifer's arms as the brunet drew deep, shuddering breaths into his lungs.

"Squall?" Seifer hated how frightened his voice sounded.

"I'll be okay, Seifer," Squall rasped, leaning into Seifer's arms a moment before forcing himself to grab Lion Heart off the ground and stand up straight. "What the hell is that?" he demanded, staring pointedly at the Shadow-Squall.

"It's... well, you might call it a back-up copy created from your strongest emotions. Just think, within this resides the depths of your hatred and lengths you'll go to in order to avoid that which you fear... and he is loyal only to me," Ultimecia informed him with a smirk. "I think I'll call it Griever. Though I don't think this form fits it well. How about...?" she trailed off as the shadow began to morph into a new form.

In legends, Griever was supposed to be an ancient Guardian Force that took the form of a lion. This... parody that Ultimecia created was anything but lion shaped. It looked more like the great behemoths that used to roam the plains of Galbadia and Esthar. It stood on it's hind legs and brandished it's claws at the SeeDs menacingly, red-tipped sword-esque protrusions jutting out of its elbows. It's face was framed by a red mane, so perhaps it's face, at the very least, was somewhat reminiscent of a lion. It's body was covered by black and gray fur, blue wings, similar to that of a bat's, stretched out behind him.

"Mistress..." it hissed, tilting it's head to the side and regarding Ultimecia expressionlessly.

"Griever," Ultimecia practically purred the GF's name. "Show them your true power. Make them bleed!"

Irvine and Quistis exchanged a quick look before going after the new GF. Quistis' whip wasn't fast enough to hit Griever, who took to the air with a few beats from his powerful wings. Irvine's shots, however, hit the GF square in the chest.

Meanwhile, Seifer, Selphie, and Squall went after Ultimecia. She dodged Seifer's thrust only to barely block an overhead attack from Squall. Selphie's fireballs dispersed against Ultimecia's Shell spell. Ultimecia's concentration was slipping, having to deal with so many simultaneous attacks, forcing her to go on the defensive even as she cast spells at them and parried their weapons and magic with her swords. She was good, making Seifer wonder if she'd received training from the very establishment she now sought to destroy. While there were people who could match multiple SeeD without being trained at Gardens, they were few and far between... probably even fewer in the future.

"Irvine!" Quistis' shout distracted the three SeeD fighting Ultimecia.

They glanced away just in time to watch Griever's claws rip the ground, opening a tear into the same nothingness that Zell had vanished into. The cowboy struggled to his feet, but the next swipe of Griever's claws nearly scraped against the sharpshooter's chest, causing Irvine to stumble backwards, overbalanced, and fall through the tear. It sealed behind him even as Selphie screamed his name. The air seemed to ripple with heat of her rage.

The intensity of Selphie's attacks suddenly doubled, as did her casting time. She split her spells between Ultimecia and Griever, both retreating as many of the spells managed to push enough power to leave painful looking scrapes and burns.

Seifer broke away from the attack on Ultimecia to provide cover for Quistis, who was using her blue magic on Griever. Unlike Minion, who favored water magic, Quistis was partial to eye-lasers and mini-missiles, though she tended to use all her spells to their greatest effect. Seifer blocked every attack that Griever tried to land on the blonde witch, but the strength behind Griever's attacks was wearing Seifer down far faster than he was comfortable with. His arms ached as he used a two handed grip to better withstand Griever's blows.

Griever's claws caught on Hyperion's trigger during his next attack and Seifer yelped in pain as his wrists were wrenched painfully. Hyperion was jerked from his grip, hitting the ground and spinning away to rest not far from Selphie. Seifer found himself knocked on his ass, dazed, staring up at Griever's claws, with Squall's voice ringing in his ears.

"What are you waiting for!" Ultimecia shouted. "Finish him!"

"I..." Griever's gravely voice shook with uncertainty and confusion. "I cannot. I cannot kill this man."

"Why the hell not!"

"I... I do not know, mistress..."

Griever's arm dropped to his side, the claws moving away from Seifer's face, much to his relief. Standing up, Seifer shot the artificially created GF a wary look before walking over to Selphie and grabbing Hyperion. He tried to ignore the way his wrist protested the weight of the gunblade, but wound up wincing in pain anyway.

"Liberi Fatali... the Fated Children. The ones destined to destroy me." Ultimecia was staring up at Griever. "I could not drive a wedge between you... even my own creation fails me. Is the future truly so immutable?

"I refuse to believe it. I will change things... I will rewrite all of time if I must!" Reaching towards Griever, Ultimecia made a grabbing motion. Her Guardian Force shuddered and then returned to the dark mist it began as, twisting around Ultimecia and sinking into her skin. She made a shoving motion at Quistis, who managed to get out of the way as electricity crashed down where she'd been standing, creating a hole in the floor.

Squall rushed her and Ultimecia deflected his attacks, though her movements were growing labored.

"Selphie, Quistis, attack her with simultaneous spells while I go after her from the opposite side of Squall. Someone's attack will have to get through." He whispered his commands to the girls and, once they nodded, Seifer set himself up for the attack.

Ultimecia whirled to meet Seifer's attack, her magic warding off the spells sent by Selphie and Quistis. True to Seifer's prediction Ultimecia, exhausted by battling the SeeD, really couldn't fend off everything. Lion Heart slid into Ultimecia's back, the tip of the pulsing blue blade visible as it protruded from Ultimecia's stomach. Squall yanked the blade out, the blood instantly vanishing from the glowing metal. Ultimecia collapsed to her knees and stared up at Seifer, her eyes seeming to change to bright amber as she knelt there, slowly bleeding out.

"You... don't belong," she whispered, understanding lighting up her face in that moment. "Things _can_ be changed. I just... did it wrong. I... I have to try again..." Ultimecia shuddered and then fell face first into the ground, apparently dead.

The castle surrounding them began to flicker.

"Time Compression seems to be failing," Selphie observed. "We've got to get out of here and... and trust that Irvine and Zell will be okay on their own."

"They will be. You'll see Irvine again soon," Quistis promised Selphie. "We just need to concentrate on where we want to go and when."

"Easier said than done, I suspect," Seifer mused, eying the wavering walls worriedly. "So... how do we..." he cut himself off with a shout as the floor opened up beneath him. His last sight was of Squall's wide blue-gray eyes before the whole world went dark around him.

* * *

"You have to wake up."

Seifer wanted nothing more than to ignore the voice. He hurt all over and sleep would take the pain away.

"Do not ignore me, Knight."

Stiffening, Seifer recognized the voice. Though it had been some time since he'd last heard from the speaker, it was the one memory from his other life that had not grown fuzzy and faded since he'd been granted his second chance.

Reluctant green eyes opened as Seifer sat up and then stood slowly. He reached out for Hyperion, debated hanging onto it, and then sheathed it at his side. The speaker had sent him into the past without trouble once already, so Seifer had no doubt that if this person meant him harm then he'd be screwed regardless of whether Hyperion was in his hand or at his side.

Besides, Seifer's wrists still hurt from Griever's less than gentle disarming technique. Though the beastly GF might have been incapable of killing Seifer, the damn thing certainly hadn't seemed to mind a little maiming.

"I see you've done well with your second chance." The speaker was visible this time, clad in a dark cloak that nearly blended in with the shadows. Blonde hair peeked out of the cowl at shoulder height.

"You used Time Compression to give me my second chance?" Seifer couldn't believe it, though it certainly explained why this place seemed so familiar. He'd avoided Time Compression the last time around, though, so... "how?"

"I am a Sorceress." She drew back the hood from her face, revealing lightly tanned skin and chocolate eyes. "I only came here to warn you that your lover will be lost in this place if you cannot make him leave. He was able to physically manifest in the past for a short while and then return to Time Compression. Like his cousin, Ellone, he has an innate ability to manipulate time magic."

"He's... a caster, like me?"

"Yes. He cannot send people's minds to the past, the way Ellone can, but he can manipulate this compressed place to some degree with his subconscious. His state of mind, however, works against him, causing his fears to pit this place against him." She paused and then added, "you must both awaken from this place."

"Why did you send me back?" Seifer asked abruptly.

"I wanted to give you a second chance to make the right choices. I tried with another, but... she failed time and again. No matter what she did, Fr... Ultimecia always came into being." She paused and then added, "the last time we met, I warned you not to speak of your experiences with others. I rescind that order now. If you so desire, you may divulge your secrets to those you love."

"Who are you?"

She smiled sadly and shook her head negatively. It seemed that some secrets he'd simply never learn.

The blonde woman pulled the cowl back over her head and then faded away into the background. However, Seifer wasn't alone. In the distance, he could see someone else seemingly appear from nowhere.

Squall...

Seifer's breath caught painfully in his chest as he watched Squall drop to his knees, gloved hands pressed against his face. Something was wrong. Something was horribly wrong.

Taking off at a run, Seifer didn't fully recognize his intent to reach Squall until he was kneeling in front of the trembling brunet. Hesitantly, Seifer reached out and brushed Squall's hands away from his face.

"Squall..." Seifer whispered, staring fearfully into Squall's seemingly unseeing eyes. Squall's gaze was vacant, as if he was seeing something that Seifer couldn't. "Squall," Seifer repeated in a louder voice, giving the brunet's shoulders a sharp shake. "Snap out of it!"

"I think I've done something terrible," Squall whispered, closing his eyes and slumping forwards, so that his forehead rested against Seifer's chest.

Seifer slid his hands around Squall's back and pulled him tightly against him. "Whatever terrible thing you think you've done... explaining it can wait until we're out of here, okay. Besides, I..." thinking of what the woman – the blonde Sorceress – had told him, Seifer finished the sentence. "I have something I need to tell you, too." He pressed a kiss against the top of Squall's head. "But it can wait as well. I love you, Squall, and we have to get out of here. I don't know about you, but I don't want to spend eternity in this place... though spending eternity here with you wouldn't be too horrible..." he leered outrageously at the brunet in his arms, earning an amused smile from the otherwise too-pale gunblader.

"I love you too, Seifer," he responded quietly, the words spreading warmth throughout the blonde.

Pulling Squall close, Seifer buried his face against Squall's neck. "We've got to wake up from this place," he muttered, shutting his eyes tightly.

"Wake up?" Squall echoed uncertainly.

"Sort of... just open your eyes." Seifer pulled back a little, opening his own eyes even as he felt the warmth of the sun on his skin. They were kneeling together on the beach behind Orphanage, the lighthouse a few yards away.

Squall's eyes were shut and he seemed almost translucent. Seifer reached up to cup the brunet's cheek. "Squall?"

"My eyes are open, Seifer. There's nothing to see in this place."

"Close your eyes and then try again," Seifer teased. "Trust me; we're behind the orphanage."

There was a long moment of silence before Squall was suddenly there in full-technicolor instead of the washed out appearance he had when Seifer first looked. Blue-gray eyes flickered open and Squall looked around in shocked surprise. "We're really here," he murmured.

"Hopefully we're even in the right time period. After wandering around in Time Compression, it'd suck to show up late to our own 'saved the world' party, right?" Seifer joked, even as he thought back to what Squall had said during Time Compression. What terrible thing could Squall have possibly done? Squall didn't do terrible things, though. That was Seifer's shtick.

"Seifer..." Squall still looked miserable, so Seifer began running his thumb over Squall's cheek soothingly.

Leaning in, Seifer pressed a soft kiss against Squall's lips. "We need to talk, but it can wait until we're back home. Okay?"

Squall nodded and leaned his head slightly against Seifer's shoulder. The brunet was acting like he might never receive affection from Seifer ever again and it was starting to freak him out a little. Just what did Squall do?

Sighing, Seifer pressed another kiss against Squall's forehead and then stood up, dragging the brunet along with him. "Let's go find the others... and please stop acting like we're two steps away from Armageddon. We just kicked the Sorceress' ass. This is a happy time, Squall."

"Whatever."

"That's the emo spirit I love so much," Seifer teased, grinning as Squall fell into his normal, stoic expression.

Despite his fears, a smile tugged at the edges of Squall's mouth.

The next few hours were a blur. They found Zell, Selphie, and Irvine in the field of flowers and Quistis inside the wrecked Orphanage. The Ragnarok came to pick them up, Ellone at the helm and Cadell tucked into some blankets (she had the appearance of a head stuck in a sea of quilts and was easily within Ellone's peripheral vision at all times) as she slept off the fever her magic caused as it fought off the remains of Ultimecia's control over her.

Seifer wound up in a reclined chair in the back of the cockpit, half asleep as he listened to Selphie argue with Ellone over who should fly them back to Garden and Irvine prattle on about how Selphie'd accepted him as her fiance and Knight. After the first few rounds of 'congratulations' from everyone, Seifer decided to just tune them out. He thought he felt someone running their fingers through his hair, but he was out like a light once Selphie finally got the Ragnarok into the air. He vaguely recalled Ellone pouting in the co-pilot seat and then some blissfully erotic dreams involving Squall and a game of naked 'hide and seek.' All in all, it was a really nice flight.

* * *

"So, we kicked Sorceress ass. What happens next?" Zell wanted to know as soon as they finished explaining to Xu what happened. After arriving at Garden, they'd trooped up to a conference room and started filling in the Headmistress on the particulars of their successful mission.

"There'll be a war tribunal involving Galbadia, Matron, and probably Minion too," Quistis responded. "The world wants to know what has been going on, so we'll all likely be called to court to testify as to the events that occurred over the past couple of weeks."

"The tribunal will likely be run by Esthar, Balamb, and maybe Dollet too," Irvine mused, absently running his fingers through Selphie's hair as she snuggled on his lap. "But where would they hold the tribunal? Centra maybe?"

"It'd be better if it were held in Fisherman's Horizon," Seifer spoke up. "The city is it's own country, its completely isolated from all other countries by water, the only way there right now is to arrive by water since the train tracks are practically defunct, and the citizens are all pacifistic to some degree. The place has 'officially neutral ground' written all over it."

"That's a good idea," Xu agreed. "When you all return to Esthar tomorrow to report your success to President Loire, someone should recommend FH as the tribunal site."

Squall nodded. "I will."

Idly, Seifer wondered if the Estharians came up with FH on their own the other time through or if someone else had thought it up. He didn't remember the trials, though he knew they occurred. In fact, he couldn't even remember if he'd shown up for his or if they'd tried him in absentia while he let himself get captured by Galbadians.

"Well... if that's all, you can all leave... except Seifer. You get to explain why Jade sniping your entire security staff with pink paintballs qualifies as training."

Seifer grinned as Squall decided to stay put for this one.

* * *

Seifer sighed as he dropped onto the bed and kicked his shoes off. "We should officially move in together," he observed. "I'm basically living in here anyway and my quarters are pretty much useless right now, unless Irvine's still bunking in there. Though I'm sure Selphie's moved him in with her now that they're engaged..."

"They're moving kind of fast, don't you think?" Squall asked quietly. "They've only been reunited for a few weeks and dating for a that amount of time minus a few days..."

"Nah, Irvine said something about having a long engagement so that by the time they do say 'I do' she'll have already trained him to keep his laundry in a hamper and that sort of stuff." Seifer twisted to the side and asked, "that wasn't a subtle way of asking if we're moving too fast, was it? 'Cause right now I'm too tired to figure that out on my own."

"No... it wasn't. I'm just..." Squall perched on the edge of the bed. "While we were in Time Compression, something happened that I need to tell you, but at the same time..."

"You want to avoid talking about it as long as possible," Seifer filled in. He knew what Squall meant. He needed to tell Squall about how he'd fucked with the timeline, but at the same time...

"Nothing will change how I feel about you Squall. Besides, you aren't really the sort of person who does terrible, horrible, unforgivable things. So come here," Seifer sat up and pulled Squall into his arms, "and we'll flip a coin to see who goes first... cause there's something I need to tell you too."

"I'll go first," Squall offered, leaning back against Seifer's offered warmth for a moment before pulling away and turning to face the blonde.

"In Time Compression... I was sent back to the Orphanage, thirteen years ago. I... saw Ultimecia die there, passing her powers on to Matron. While I was there, I told Matron about SeeD... and I made her promise me something."

When Squall fell silent, Seifer reached out and slid his hand over Squall's. He didn't say anything, he just waited.

"I made her promise that the two of us would be sent to Garden together... that she wouldn't let us be separated." Squall's voice was shaking slightly. "Because of me... she kept us when everyone else was adopted. Because of me..." he trailed off, unable to finish the sentence, but the words 'you never got to be adopted and have a family' were suddenly hanging in the air anyway.

Seifer's chest felt tight.

Hyne... he'd wanted a family so badly as a kid. Matron tried, but after arriving at Garden she'd been more like a distant aunt than a mother. That didn't stop Seifer from thinking of her as his mom for a long time, but mothers... they came when their kids broke their legs or got grazed by bullets in the training center or any of the other accidents that Seifer had gotten into over the years. But she'd shown up to see him maybe half a dozen times in seven years – four times for birthdays, once for Midwinter festival, and then after he was shot by McCormick when she'd been possessed by Ultimecia at some point during the visit. If there were any other visits, he'd forgotten them. She written and called a lot, but she was never really there.

There were times when Seifer had been painfully envious of Zell for having a mom to go home to on the weekends or Xu for having a Dad who'd show up every time she earned a new award. He still felt awkward on Parents Day even though he'd long ago stopped wondering if Matron would show up for her children.

Squall knew that... had once even admitted to feeling the same way, though the memory was old and a tad fuzzy. So why had he ensured that...

The tightness receded and Seifer could breathe again. "You were afraid to lose me," Seifer whispered, feeling just a little lightheaded at the thought. Louder, he repeated, "you were afraid to lose me."

"Yes..."

"That's not a terrible thing, Squall. What you made Matron promise... that wasn't terrible either." He leaned in and kissed Squall lightly. "What I did... that might be another story entirely."

"What do you mean?" Squall's eyes were alert and worried, his hand flipping over so that he could entwine his fingers with Seifer's.

"I changed history... sort of." Taking a deep breath, Seifer began to tell Squall everything. He started with explaining that the way things had turned out was the second time around and how the first time around he'd been Ultimecia's Knight. At some point during his explanation, Squall released his hand and stood up, moving to pace around the bed.

That was around the time that Seifer got decidedly nervous, started stuttering over his words every few sentences, and generally couldn't look at Squall without something cold and terrifying coiling in the pit of his stomach. By the time he was finished, Seifer felt a little nauseous. He also felt very scared.

He'd placed his heart in Squall's hands. Hands that had every right to utterly crush Seifer for having fucked around with time because some Sorceress, who may or may not have been able to completely stop Ultimecia from ever coming into existence, chose to give Seifer a very undeserved second chance. All the while, a myriad of expressions passed over Squall's features. Everything from disbelief to anger to acceptance was conveyed to Seifer without the brunet interrupting even for clarification's sake.

Seifer made certain he was very clear on all points he could remember.

"You..." Squall trailed off hoarsely and closed his eyes, taking a shuddering breath. "You just handed yourself over to the Galbadians." Seifer nodded. "You knew they'd kill you... you had to know that."

"Yeah... I had a pretty good guess that they would turn me into their scapegoat."

"You committed suicide by proxy."

There was a long pause as, for a moment, Seifer completely froze. Taking in a shaky breath, he whispered, "I... hadn't really thought about it like that."

"I..." Squall's voice caught in his throat again. "I could have lost you. The most important person in my life... and I could have lost you without ever knowing..." Without warning, a fist struck out to hit Seifer in the chest. There was enough force behind it that Seifer knew he was going to have a painful bruise there for a few days.

"Why did you kiss me that first time? Knowing that I wound up with Rinoa in that other timeline, why..."

"Because the idea of you winding up with her made me crazy with jealousy... and when you smile or laugh or... anything really, you take my breath away... then there you were, lying there on top of me, and I wanted you so bad that I didn't care if it fucked up everything so long as I had a chance at having you look at me the way I remembered you looking at her..." Seifer's voice choked off.

"You know..." Squall spoke softly, reaching out to gently caress Seifer's cheek, "it's a little hypocritical of you to be pissed off at Ellone when we both succeeded at the thing she failed at."

"Changing the past to ensure we got the future we wanted," Seifer filled in. "I wanted to live beyond the age of eighteen and you wanted to keep me in your life." He looked up into Squall's eyes and then reached out, pulling the brunet forward so that he stood between Seifer's knees. Burying his face against Squall's stomach, Seifer felt like a weight had been yanked off his shoulders. "You don't think I'm crazy?"

"No... it sounds crazy, but I know you. I know when you're lying."

"In that other timeline, you wouldn't have asked Matron to keep me at Garden with you."

"Hmm...?"

"I'm just saying... I wound up at Garden anyway. No one adopted me. No one wanted me. So try not to feel too bad, Squall. You didn't keep me from some wonderful family that would love me. You made sure I'd be here... to have Fujin and Raijin as my family and you as the sex kitten who loves me."

"What did you call me?" Squall growled.

Seifer laughed, the sound venting his worries and fears. "I called you a sex kitten," Seifer teased, craning up to press a kiss against the base of Squall's jaw. "Everyone else will see you as some fierce lion... but when it's just us, you have this other side to you that I can't help but think of as being somewhat kittenish... and utterly sexy."

"Mmm..." Squall blinked dazedly, exhausted from everything they'd been through that day. "You already promised never to treat your life as expendable," Squall muttered, "so let's just expand that to 'no letting yourself die for no reason' and call it a night. I'm tired."

"That's it? You aren't mad...?"

"For what? Hiding this or being the Sorceress' Knight?"

"Either... both... I tortured you..." Seifer's throat grew painfully tight as his eyes shut and his forehead fell against Squall's chest again.

"No. She tortured me. She used people to torture me because she knew I'd be the one to lead everyone against her." Squall slid his arms around Seifer's shoulders. "She tried to take you away from me.

"You... I love you. There is nowhere I feel safer than wherever you happen to be." Squall kissed the top of Seifer's head. "Let's go to sleep."

Seifer nodded mutely, unable to voice all the things he wanted to say. They stripped down to their boxers and moved beneath the covers, Squall's back pressed against Seifer's chest as sleep came to claim them.

"I love you," Seifer whispered.

* * *

_Seifer knew she was Matron the moment she walked into the room. There was something about Edea Kramer that was unmistakable, though apparently not unforgettable. Until she'd passed through the doorway, Seifer couldn't recall how she currently looked. _

_Though Edea had aged well and didn't look much older from how she'd appeared when Seifer had been her troublesome foster child, the photographs Seifer had were of poor quality and invoked a child's memories of someone taller and more imposing than Matron really was. _

"_Cid told me what happened to you, child," Edea said as the door shut behind her. "I'm glad to see you're alright."_

"_Thanks for agreeing to see me, Matron," Seifer responded. "I..." _I wish you'd visit more often. I wish you'd treat me like the son you so often call me. I wish that you hadn't been halfway across the world when I was bleeding on the ground and going through surgery in Balamb. I wish..._ "I'm glad to see you."_

"_Where... where were you shot?"_

_Seifer touched his shoulder, his fingers brushing the fabric of his shirt against the still sensitive skin of his new scar. "He was aiming for my heart, but fortunately for me, he was a little off in his targeting."_

"_Such a relief..." Edea took a few steps closer and Seifer felt the odd urge to stand up and back away. But she settled into the chair beside him without doing anything threatening and Seifer reminded himself that this was Matron in front of him. Matron would never harm him. The whole near-death thing was clearly fucking with his head more than he'd realized. "I'd feared that..."_

"_That what? Matron... how much did Headmaster Kramer tell you about the events surrounding the attack on me?"_

"_He told me that a rogue SeeD was responsible and that he's been placed in police custody after receiving a dishonorable discharge." Matron tilted her head to the side. "Am I missing something?"_

"_McCormick was a... criminal I had the Disciplinary Committee looking into. Security was ignoring his crimes and his victims... finally came to us out of desperation. It's sad when SeeDs have to come to cadets for help, right?" Seifer laughed, the sound soft and bitter. "When I brought the evidence to Headmaster Kramer, he... tried to sweep the whole thing under the rug to avoid a scandal tied to Garden. Even now, McCormick isn't actually in the custody of Balamb's police. I'm not sure what strings Kramer pulled, but McCormick's been buried in D-District in Galbadia."_

"_Why does this bother you, child? He's been put away where he can no longer harm anyone."_

"_Because... he never should have been in a position to hurt me in the first place. There are so many people who were hurt by him and won't know he's been brought to justice now. It's all getting hidden away and there's not a damn thing I can do about it. I just..." Seifer ran a hand through his hair and let out a frustrated sigh. _

"_I went into town that night in order to try and force McCormick's actions into the light. Instead, by getting shot, I wound up causing it all to be oh-so-quietly 'taken care of.' The detective I talked to that evening said that all his evidence has been confiscated and all Kramer will tell me is that it's all over and McCormick's not a threat anymore. It's got me to the point where I'm not even sure I want to be SeeD anymore. I... I was offered a place in the BPD and it's looking more and more like a better place for me. I'd have to go through their six-month academy, but it'd be a good place to start over away from here."_

"_No." Edea reached over, her fingers brushing against Seifer's cheek. "No, you won't leave Garden. Not until I'm ready. Not until you hate Garden so much that you won't question my choice to burn it to the ground..." _

_Seifer shuddered, a nauseous, dizzy feeling coming over him. He tried to struggle, but Edea's magic held Seifer fast. Oh Hyne... it hurt... his head hurt so much, he couldn't breathe. He couldn't think..._

_The door opened..._

Seifer jolted awake, his hands braced against Squall's arms and his face pressed against the brunet's chest. He was breathing fast, the pain from the dream lingering into wakefulness.

"Seifer? Seifer, what's wrong?"

Unable to respond at first, Seifer took slow deep breaths, reminding himself that he was safe with Squall. Ultimecia was gone and wouldn't show up again until after they were both long dead. "I remembered what happened the day Ultimecia first tried to control me," he finally answered.

Squall's hands immediately pulled Seifer closer. "What happened?"

"She was pretending to be Edea, but badly. I didn't realize though, 'cause I could barely remember what she was supposed to be like..."

"Because of the GFs messing with your memories," Squall filled in, his fingers tracing distracting patterns on Seifer's back.

"Yeah." Seifer nodded, relaxing into Squall's touch and allowing the tension the dream had caused to melt away. "I was confused and really considering just leaving Garden after the whole mess with McCormick. The way Kramer only handled things when his hand was forced and then used Garden's political power to sweep the whole thing under the rug... it really pissed me off. Ultimecia didn't think my anger with Garden was strong enough for her to create a complete connection with me yet. She wanted me to truly loathe Garden and she used her magic to force me to want to stay," Seifer shuddered at the memory. "It hurt."

"Is Garden really where you want to be?" Squall sounded worried, so Seifer pressed a few feather-light kisses against the brunet's neck. He smiled as Squall whimpered almost inaudibly at the touch.

"Yes," Seifer replied. "I like being Chief of Security. I like knowing that I don't have to leave Garden to be happy. I love being anywhere you are. There's nowhere I could go where I'd be happier."

"Mmm..." Squall smiled and pressed Seifer back against the pillows. Straddling the blonde, he leaned down for a long, drawn out kiss that left Seifer gasping for breath from the intensity. "I love you," Squall practically purred in his ear.

"Love you." Seifer groaned softly, fighting the urge to flip them over and take control of things. There was something he wanted – needed – to clear away the lingering affects of the dream. "Squall... I want to know what it feels like to have you inside of me." Seifer grinned as Squall froze, his eyes darkening and his erection hardening against Seifer's stomach.

"Seifer..." the brunet sounded dazed by the request.

"Squall..." Seifer moaned as Squall rocked against him and, once again, he had to resist taking charge and pounding into the lithe body atop him. "Please..." because as much as he loved being inside Squall, he'd felt hollowed out by the dream. He needed Squall to make the hollow feeling go away.

Squall snapped into action, pulling Seifer's boxers off with anxious hands while his mouth teased it's way down the blonde's body. When Squall's lips latched on to Seifer's penis, Seifer could feel a lubricated finger trace his entrance and then slip passed the muscle; he couldn't even recall Squall reaching for the lotion in the nightstand drawer. Seifer tensed at the intrusion and he took slow, deep, shuddering breaths in an attempt to help himself relax. However, it was the feeling of Squall's other hand reaching up to massage his hip that calmed Seifer down as a second finger joined the first.

It didn't hurt exactly as Squall's finger's scissored inside him, but it was uncomfortable and Seifer squirmed. His fingers gripped the bedding tightly as a third finger slid in and suddenly Squall's fingers were moving deeper inside of Seifer, sending shivers of anticipation up his spine.

"Ahh..." Seifer yelp and his back arched as Squall massaged the bundle of nerves deep inside him, sending sparks of pleasure running through him. "Fuck... oh, fuck..." he shuddered, watching the satisfied smirk on Squall's face. "Squall, do it... oh, fuck..." Squall's finger's and mouth were rapidly bringing him to the edge. "Just put it in already," he moaned, his hands tugging at the bedding. A distant part of his mind hoped that he didn't wind up tearing the sheets.

Squall pulled away completely and hovered over Seifer for a few moments, listening to Seifer whimper at the loss. Seifer's hand released the bedsheets and reached up, tugging at Squall's shoulders to pull the younger teen into another searing kiss. He moaned into Squall's mouth as he felt the brunet's erection press against his own.

"Are you sure?" Squall managed to ask after they broke the kiss.

"Y-yeah..." Seifer pushed Squall away slightly, however. "I'm not as..." his mind searched blankly for the right description, "bendy... as you are. This would be easier if I get on my stomach."

Squall's breath huffed slightly in amusement at the word 'bendy.' "Okay..."

Seifer rolled over and then let out surprised series of moans as Squall peppered his back with kisses. Then Squall started pushing inside him and Seifer bit his lip to keep from crying out in pain. While Squall's fingers had been uncomfortable, Squall's erection felt as though it were tearing him apart from the inside out.

Feeling the way Seifer was tensing around him, Squall slipped a pillow beneath Seifer's hips to help him stay propped up and then began pumping Seifer's softening member, attempting to offset the pain with some pleasure.

Once Squall was all the way in, he started rocking in and out shallowly, setting a tortuously slow pace as he searched for the right angle to make Seifer see stars. It hurt, almost too much, and Seifer was starting to wonder if he should ask Squall to stop, but...

"Ahh! Nnngh..." Seifer bucked, driving Squall deeper inside him. "There... oh... Oh Hyne..." Squall pulled out and thrust a little deeper this time. "Fuck, fuck... Squall!" Seifer started babbling nonsense at that point, his brain feeling as though it were being fried by the electric shocks of pleasure that shot through his body, making his arms and legs tingle and chasing away the last remnants of his dream.

He felt Squall's rhythm speed up until the brunet finally lost control, thrusting into him a few final times before cumming inside of him, biting Seifer's shoulder sharply in the process. Seifer fell over the edge himself at that point and the world whited out. Half aware of what was happening, he collapsed as Squall discarded the now sticky pillow beneath Seifer to the ground and pulled the covers over them as they shared the remaining pillow. Their bodies smelled of sweat and sex and Seifer had never felt so sore in so many places before. He smiled sleepily and held Squall closer.

* * *

Seifer woke up to the feeling of cock being enveloped by a delicious, wet heat. Gasping and trying to buck his hips (which were held down by Squall's hands), Seifer stared wide-eyed at the brunet who was blowing him. "F-fuck..." he groaned.

Squall lifted his mouth away from Seifer's engorged penis, smirking at the whimpers that issued from the blonde's mouth at the almost obscene slurping noise he made when the tip left his lips. "Good morning," Squall responded, running his hands slowly up Seifer's sides until he was stretched out on top of Seifer, their bodies separated by inches. "Last night felt amazing... but..." he captured Seifer's lips in a lazy kiss as his tongue slid into Seifer's mouth and then held Seifer's wrists down to keep the blonde from pulling him closer. "I missed the feeling of you inside me," he finished leadingly.

"You're trying to kill me with sex," Seifer accused and then paused thoughtfully. "Not a bad way to go, really. My tombstone could read 'Fucked to Death' or something equally catchy."

Rolling his eyes, Squall rocked his hips against Seifer's and they both moaned low in his throat. "I'm horny and you're cracking jokes. Why am I in love with you?"

"Because," Seifer managed to pull his wrists out of Squall's grip and flipped them over, "I'm just that damn wonderful and sexy."

"And humble too."

"Yup." Seifer hid a wince as his sore ass complained against his movements. But the thought of burying himself inside Squall, feeling the tight walls surrounding him, made Seifer overlook the pain. "Where'd you leave the lotion last night?"

"S-somewhere on the floor," Squall gestured to the right, shuddering as Seifer's hands started massaging his thighs. "Unnn..."

Reaching down, Seifer found the lotion and coated his fingers in it. Slipping two fingers into Squall, he went straight for Squall's prostrate. The brunet's back arched off the bed and his hands gripped Seifer's biceps, fingernails digging into the blonde's arm. "Seifer!"

"I love hearing you call my name like that," Seifer purred, scissoring his fingers and enjoy the breathy moans and mewls that emerged from Squall's mouth.

He'd only just added his third finger when Squall's grip tightened sharply. "Fuck me now." When Seifer hesitated, Squall snapped, "now, Seifer!"

Hastily, Seifer removed his fingers, slicked up his dick, and guided himself into Squall. "That close, huh?"

"Ah... ah..." Squall wrapped his legs around Seifer's waist, driving the blonde even more deeply inside him.

"Sh-shit..." Seifer moaned and began thrusting into Squall. Wrapping a hand around Squall's arousal, he brought Squall off and then came himself as Squall's body bucked and tightened around him. "I love you, I love you," he murmured, collapsing atop Squall. He slid to the side and tried to pull out, but Squall's legs tightened.

"Just... stay a minute," Squall mumbled, burying his face against Seifer's chest. He clenched around Seifer slightly, causing the over sensitized man to grip Squall tightly. "I love you," Squall's muffled voice added.

Closing his eyes, Seifer started tracing random designs along the lithe man's spine. "If we fall asleep like this, you'll wake up with me hard inside you."

Squall shivered and looked up at Seifer, his blue eyes visibly dilating again. "Mmm... sounds good to me."

"Everyone else will spend today partying, but if you keep this up we'll be spending it having marathon sex."

"And that's bad because...?"

"Oh, it's not." Seifer nuzzled Squall's ear and then nipped the lobe. He grinned at the feeling of Squall squirming around his twitching cock. "Hyne, you feel so good."

"Let me ride you," Squall demanded moving so that Seifer was lying on his back with Squall seated on top of him, though Seifer had to pull out for Squall to achieve it. He scratched his nails over Seifer's nipples, the pink nubs hardening under the attention and sending sparks of pleasurable heat down to something else that was swiftly hardening.

In retaliation, Seifer reached up and started running his hands over the brunet's most sensitive spots, enjoying the mewling noises and the rocking hips that Seifer's touches drew out. Eventually Squall lifted himself up and then slowly impaled himself on Seifer's erection. Seifer tried to stay still, but the sight and feeling was too much and he thrust upwards into the tight heat surrounding him. Squall smirked and then began working up a rhythm, lifting his hips higher and higher with each thrust and Seifer bucked his hips, thrusting upward in time with Squall's downward movements.

Panting and desperate, Squall commanded, "t-touch me. Seifer, touch me!"

Seifer needed no further prompting to reach up to pump Squall's penis a few times and run his thumb over the tip just before Squall came hard over Seifer's stomach. Thrusting up one final time, Seifer came as well, Squall's name on his lips and lights sparking behind his eyes.

Pulling out of Squall, Seifer winced a little as his own ass spasmed with pain, part of which was in sympathy to the blood that dotted the semen that followed Seifer out of Squall's hole. Squall whimpered and moaned softly.

"You're hurt," Seifer muttered, pressing his face against Squall's sweat-slicked hair.

"I'm not..."

"You're bleeding," Seifer interrupted, his fingers running down to trace the brunet's semen and lotion slicked entrance. The noises that bubbled out of Squall's throat were made as much of pain as pleasure. "Hurts, huh?"

"Y-yeah."

"Can you even stand?"

Huffing in irritation, Squall pulled away from Seifer and forced himself to get off the bed. He stood for a moment before his knees gave way and he had to catch himself on the bed in order to keep from falling on his ass. Embarrassment colored his cheeks and Seifer couldn't stop from laughing even though he knew it'd piss the shorter gunblader off.

"Shut up!" Squall growled, looking for all the world to be a fluffed up, angry kitten.

"If it makes you feel better, you pounded my ass pretty hard last night. I won't be walking all that well either."

"Hmmph." Squall's lips quirked at the edges though, so Seifer knew he was hiding a smile.

Unsteadily, Seifer got to his feet and helped Squall off the ground. "Though I prefer fucking you," Seifer told Squall, a wry smirk twisting his lips slightly to the right, "being fucked by you was exactly what I needed last night. I'll need it - and want it - again, I'm sure."

"Let me know when," Squall responded hoarsely.

A/N - Having never written smut before this story, Kit and I were both worried we'd suck badly at the sex scenes. Instead, I think we've learned a lot. Maybe one day I can even try my hand at original romance stories with Fabio on the cover. Kit... is laughing at me for this comment.


	26. Epilogue

Disclaimer - If FF8 were a fish, it would not live in my fishtank.

A/N - So, the end has arrived. The first little section is just for those curious about the Sorceress from Time Compression. It fills in one or two questions you may have had about her and gives you so many more. So if you don't care about her or her connection to Ultimecia, then just skip on down to where Seifer and Squall are dancing on the balcony. ^_^ As mentioned on the previous chapter, the first two chapters of the story have been redone as the 'director's cut' versions of themselves with added content and the smoothing over of issues that have been bugging us for a while.

_Epilogue – Loose Threads_

There were many choices to be made in the world and there were points in time many people would give anything to go back to. They would love to have second chances.

Anise was one of them.

She watched through the darkness as Seifer danced with Squall on the balcony, away from prying eyes during Garden's celebratory party. She watched Irvine and Selphie announce their wedding, set for the day after the first anniversary of Ultimecia's defeat. She watched Quistis and Cadell's first kiss, sweet and lingering and a reminder of everything that Anise could never again experience.

Smiling bitterly, Anise was relieved to see that at least some of the heroes responsible for Ultimecia's defeat were moving towards happiness. She had changed what she could and now it was time to return to that which she could not change: her death and Ultimecia's rise.

Once Anise's beautiful Knight, Freya would fall. The renegade SeeD responsible would damn all SeeD for all of time in Ultimecia's eyes. But everything had been set to rights. Instead of a world where Seifer's death spurred Squall into depression and a life filled with on-again, off-again suicide watches while Rinoa deteriorated back into her 'little princess' persona, Seifer and Squall would live long lives together while the girl who might have been Sorceress would lead a better life as the first Vice President of Timber after it's liberation. Though Selphie becoming the Sorceress surprised Anise, she could see through the darkness that it changed nothing. Eventually the line of Sorceresses would lead to her and then to Freya, trapping her in madness.

Tears silently falling, Anise opened her eyes and awoke in the moment she left.

* * *

"I like this," Seifer admitted, tightening his arms around Squall's waist slightly as they swayed to the music.

"It is nice," Squall agreed, leaning his cheek against Seifer's shoulder and letting his eyes drift shut. "Did all of this really happen in a matter of weeks? Ultimecia... us?"

"Seems like it should have taken longer," Seifer mused. "Like we should have gone on some epic quest hunting down GFs and hidden draw points filled with high level magic. But in the end she was just one Sorceress and she couldn't really fight all of us and maintain Time Compression all at the same time."

"And us?"

"Obviously I'm just too sexy for you to resist," Seifer declared, nuzzling Squall's hair. It was just so soft... the brunet's smell assaulted Seifer's senses and he reveled in it.

"Here I thought it was the reverse," Squall mused.

"Mmm..." Seifer nipped Squall's ear lightly. "How about it's both."

"Who do you think the Sorceress was?"

"Ultimecia?"

"No... the one who helped you change time."

Seifer shrugged. "Someone who knew Ultimecia's real name. She almost slipped up and said it. Whoever she was... I don't think she could make any changes to her own life. She had a more powerful version of Ellone's power, which let her connect herself to Time Compression somehow, but... like Ellone, she only sent other people back in time."

"Well, just you at any rate," Squall agreed. "I don't think she could have stopped Ultimecia," he mused. "She saved you from death and made all our lives better." He paused and then slid his hand up to hush the objections that were on the tip of Seifer's tongue. "In that other life, I'd have wound up with Rinoa and we'd be miserable together because I'm gay. Quistis would never have met Cadell, who makes her happy. Irvine wouldn't have proposed to Selphie yet. Fujin probably wouldn't be going to the university at the end of the summer. And you..." his voice choked off for a moment. "You'd be dead.

"Our lives are better this way." Squall moved his hand away from Seifer's mouth and he kissed him chastely. "Anyway... whoever she was, she obviously wanted to help us, whatever her intentions may have been. If she could have saved everyone by stopping Ultimecia... then I think she would have."

"You're probably right," Seifer agreed. "She seemed... sad about Ultimecia. Maybe she knew her before she went nuts."

"I guess that's just another thing we'll never have answers for. Ultimecia... the Sorceress..." Squall sighed and leaned his head back against Seifer's shoulder. "I'd rather have you than answers," he mumbled.

There was a flash and a click, causing the dancing couple to pull away slightly and turn towards the door. Selphie stood there with a camera in hand and a smirk on her face. "I'll make a copy for the two of you later. Just be glad the camcorder died before I got out here."

Squall huffed and glared at the camera, but Seifer grinned. "Thanks, Selphie. It'll be nice to have a picture of us." Squall's glare turned on the blonde. "What?" Seifer laughed. "I'm an incurable romantic at heart, remember? I like the idea of having photographic evidence that we can have normal couple-y moments."

"Idiot," Squall grumbled even as the corners of his lips lifted in a suppressed smile.

"Come on inside, you two. Irvine and I have a few things to tell everyone, okay?"

They followed the excited girl into the ballroom and moved to stand with their friends, Seifer's arms sliding around Squall's shoulders as the brunet leaned back against his chest. They ignored the amused smirk on Fujin's face as she watched them from where she sat with Raijin.

"Selphie and I have decided when we want our wedding to be," Irvine declared. "A year from yesterday."

"We want it to be on the anniversary of Ultimecia's defeat," Selphie agreed. "So, obviously, we're gonna put off planning until we get a lot closer to the actual date, but... we have a few things to ask you guys, first." Turning to Quistis, she said, "you're my sister, Quisty. So I want you to be my Maid of Honor."

"I'd love to," Quistis responded, grinning at her.

"Fuu, would you be a bridesmaid?"

"AFFIRMATIVE!"

Selphie breathed a sigh of relief. "One last question from me... Seifer... would you walk me down the aisle and give me away?"

Seifer's breath caught in his throat for a second and then he released Squall. Taking a few steps around the brunet and up to the copper-haired girl, he pulled Selphie into a tight hug. "Of course. If you're sure you want him," Seifer teased, shooting Irvine a smirk as he let go of the tiny Sorceress.

"He's weird, but I love him," Selphie told Seifer seriously. "So, yeah, I want him."

Seifer was more than a little shocked as he returned to his place and latched onto Squall again. He'd have thought that Selphie would want her adoptive father to give her away, but he certainly wasn't going to turn down a chance to walk his little sister down the aisle at her wedding. There was a story there, but he doubted it was something he should bring up at the moment.

"My turn," Irvine said with a nervous laugh. "Squall, I'd like you to be my Best Man."

"Okay," Squall responded, to the cowboy's obvious relief.

"Zell, would you be a groomsman?"

"Yeah, of course, Irvine." Zell beamed and squeezed the hand of his date to the party, the quiet library girl he'd been crushing on all year. Her name was Melina or Melia or something, though Seifer wasn't really sure which it was. He'd only ever heard anyone call her Mel while she was actually present. She was pretty and she was beaming at the happy couple and at Zell, clearly pleased by their happiness.

"Uh, Seifer, you'll have to help plan my bachelor party, okay? 'Cause Squall doesn't know the first thing about partying," Irvine teased, causing Squall to roll his eyes.

"There has to be a stripper," Selphie declared. When everyone stared at her, she shrugged. "What? I'm not saying he should sleep with the stripper, because he shouldn't. But it's... traditional to have a sexy stripper at bachelor parties, right? Bachelorette parties, too, 'cause I totally want to stuff dollar bills in some sexy Fabio or Chad's briefs."

"My fiance, ladies and gentlemen." Irvine laughed, kissing Selphie's cheek.

"Awww... you two are so cute," Mel sighed. "Confidant too."

"I'd have gone with crazy, personally," Zell joked, "but you two look really happy right now." He grew serious. "I'm glad everything seems to be going our way for a change. No psycho Sorceresses and no weird surprises. Just a few trials and then we'll be taking missions to fight monsters."

"I hope you haven't just jinxed us," Quistis said, only half-teasing. "I'm worried about Cadell's trial."

"Your girlfriend will be fine," Seifer promised. "Speaking of Minion, where is she?"

"She didn't want to be around a crowd," Quistis told him, giving him a look that conveyed the unspoken message that Cadell wasn't her girlfriend yet and that he should stop saying she was unless he wanted to be brutally murdered for putting a hex on things so that they never started dating.

Seifer was impressed that all of that could be communicated by a single glare and a raised eyebrow. Quistis was taking lessons.

"I told her I'd only stay an hour or so," Quistis continued. "So I'm going to go find Matron and He... Cid," she shook her head, still unused to Kramer's change in status, "and then head off to keep Cadell company."

Squall snorted quietly and shook his head. "Just ask her on a date already," he muttered. "Seifer will stop trying to goad you into it if you just get it over with."

Quistis gave Squall a surprised look. "Relationship advice from Squall Leonhart... I really must need help. Alright... I'll ask her out to dinner."

* * *

"Huh, Quistis must have done really well with your advice," Seifer joked, having spotted Quistis ahead of them in the hallway, her lips locked with Cadell's.

"Do you think we can sneak passed them without them noticing?" Squall asked. "We've got to get up early tomorrow so that we can head back to Esthar and start dealing with everything Loire throws our way."

"Like him finally admitting that he's your father?" Seifer mused. Seeing the uncertain expression on Squall's face, Seifer kissed Squall's temple. "I think they're in their own world right now." He paused and studied them for a moment. "I wasn't really sure whether I'm gay or bi. It didn't matter once we started dating... but I'm gonna have to go with gay. Not only did I date Rinoa without ever feeling inclined to kiss her, but we're standing here watching two really hot women make out and it does nothing for me."

"You're an idiot," Squall told him fondly, walking down the hall.

"If idiot becomes your pet name for me, I'm gonna get a complex, Kitten." Seifer laughed at the affronted expression on Squall's face.

"Stop calling me that."

"I can't help it... you can be so kittenish sometimes..." Seifer's eyes glazed lustfully at the memories of some of Squall's more kittenish moments. Shaking his head, he hurried after the brunet. "At least I'm not calling you something ridiculous like Hunny Bunny. I could, you know."

"If you wanted to die painfully, then yes, you could," Squall agreed evenly, his hand briefly flitting over the knife he kept belted to his left thigh.

"Or there's Baby, but you'd probably gut me for that one too," Seifer mused. They left the blissfully unaware couple behind as he continued to think of amusing terms of endearment. "There's always Sugar. That one is a classic. Sugarlips has a certain ring to it..."

"Keep it up and I'll make you sleep in your dorm tonight."

Seifer just laughed.

A/N - And that's a wrap! Time for us to start work on _Happy Endings_. :) Keep an eye on this story for further 'director's cut' chapters and _The Cutting Room Floor Presents_ for information on why sniping people with pink paintballs is equivalent to training missions and much, much more.


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